Interim
by WitheringFeniks
Summary: M.E.C.H is up to something, D.A.A knows that for sure—but the question is what? If Zelda thought she'd been through the hardest challenge M.E.C.H could offer her—well, she's about to discover that might not be all true. Pre-SS/Zelda/SS. 2nd in the Timeless Series. Movieverse AU. [Minor Overhaul]
1. Witwicky's

**Interim**

**SUMMARY:** M.E.C.H is up to something, D.A.A know that for sure—but the question is what? If Zelda thought she'd been through the hardest challenge M.E.C.H could offer her—well, she's about to discover that might not be all true.

Pre—Sunstreaker/Zelda/Sideswipe

* * *

"_Lighten up, just enjoy life, smile more, laugh more, and don't get so worked up about things."_ – Kenneth Branagh

* * *

**Chapter 1:** Witwicky's

_When the moment comes that the ground turns liquid, a presence shall bring a new fury and the end of an essence._

_We've shared dreams under open skies  
We've loved far and we've travelled wide  
But the best is yet to come_

_We danced out late in the pouring rain  
Never lost hope, never lost the flame  
And the best is yet to come—_

My hair fluttered about as I rested my head against Sunstreaker's window frame, my arm dangling outside as he drove down the desert highway.

The silence that had begun as soon as we'd set off had long ago been replaced with blaring music, but the lack of speaking wasn't because of an awkward air between us—no, the silence between Sunstreaker and I was never gauche, in fact, it was welcomed.

Sunstreaker was an aloof person by nature so the lack of conversation was normal, and I felt _comfortable_ in that silence. Silence had been a companion I'd come to enjoy—I had learnt to use that silence and found sometimes I liked it better then human company.

And surprisingly, Sunstreaker hadn't protested when I'd taken to resting my foot on his dashboard—shoeless of course—and just listened to the music he'd started playing from my iPod.

I ran a hand through my loose hair, brushing it away from my face as it whipped in front of it.

_I'll go and burn the stars  
I'll just go and burn the stars  
Let 'em burn, let 'em burn, let 'em burn  
I'll go and burn the stars  
I'll just go and burn the stars  
I'll go and, I'll go and, I'll go and_

_Burn the stars—_

I bent my knees and lowered them, they'd gone numb from keeping them it such a straight position for almost half an hour. My knees crinked at the movement and I grimaced at the ache. I sighed, despite being cramped in Sunstreaker's form for the last two and half hours, I felt oddly relaxed.

I blinked, turning my gaze onto the rapidly moving environment—this was the furthest away I'd been from all of the Autobots since finding out I had become too host of the All-Spark. It, admittedly, put me on edgy a bit—not the I didn't feel comfortable with Sunstreaker, Sideswipe and Bumblebee. Because I did. Easily. However, it was the power in me that felt queasy at the distance to Optimus, Ratchet, Jazz, and Ironhide.

We passed several cars and I rested my head back on the headrest. My thumb subconsciously stroked back and forth on the outside of Sunstreaker's door and I only realised I'd been doing so when I felt his frame shudder.

_Sneaking out and creeping round_

_There's nothing you haven't seen now_

_Say I'm lost but I feel found_

_Think you're gonna turn me_

_But you don't see behind the shutters_

_But you don't want to see behind the shutters_

_A perfect house, a perfect smile_

_There's nothing you haven't seen now_

_Think I'm crazy, stay a while_

_I know you say you want to_

_But you don't see behind the shutters_

_But you don't want to see behind the shutters—_

I blinked, turning to the blonde-haired holoform. Sunstreaker's holoform was quite handsome—in fact, all the Autobot's had holoform that were incredibly good looking. I almost didn't believe Ratchet when he said the software generated the holoform to be the literal humanization of their real selves. Either way, his hair was on the longer side, it was a few inches from reaching his shoulders which was currently pulled back into a scruffy bun with stray strains falling either side of his rectangular face. His brows were defined but not neat and the beginning of a moustache that would only be really noticeable at certain angles because of how fair the hairs were.

His eyes retained that purple-blue shade, just more muted to look human.

Sunstreaker glanced at me then averted his gaze—_sheepishly_.

"You're stroking my plating." He answered after a moment and he'd cleared his throat.

I pulled my arm back inside sheepishly. "Sorry."

"N-no, no!" He waved me off, cheeks tinting. "It's alright—it feels quite _nice_ to be truthful."

"It does?" I asked curiously. He nodded. "Is your plating sensitive then?"

"No—our protoform is. It's just… I—I'm super hyperaware of your touch." He's lips twitched upwards. I cleared my throat this time—_oh_.

I felt his amusement. "No need to be embarrassed, sweetcheeks."

I spluttered wordlessly at the nickname—normally it was Sideswipe with them. In fact, this was the first time Sunstreaker had even called me anything other than Zelda.

He snickered at my response and I pouted at him. "It's not nice to tease others." I chided.

He raised a brow. "Says you."

"…Touché"

We shared a chuckle.

* * *

The entire journey from base to Tranquility was a good seven hours. Thankfully with the bots, there was a slight shortening of that because they liked to drive fast. But either way, we entered Tranquility's city edge by half four and I was finally feeling restless from the long drive.

I seemed to be radiating it, or maybe he could feel it over the thread, because Sunstreaker reached over, hand landing on my knee. My breath lodged in my throat at the touch—my knee stopped its jigging in response.

It was my turn to shudder as his thumb made small circular motions before gently squeezing my kneecap. But I found myself becoming oddly relaxed, muscles loosening at the soothing touch.

I murmured my thank you and he hummed in return.

His hand didn't move for the rest of the journey.

Another half an hour flew by and we finally pulled up outside the Witwicky's residence. Bumblebee scooted in front of Sunstreaker and parked on the driveway while the twins stopped at the roadside.

I unpopped and stretched, feeling as my back gave satisfying cracks. Sunstreaker opened the door before I could, and I shot him a smile as I pulled my shoes on. He grunted in response before his holoform climbed out too.

Aria stepped out of Bumblebee with his holoform and Sideswipe climbed out of his alt. My attention was drawn to the front door as it swung open and Judy came running out, a wide smile and teary face.

"My two adorable nieces!" She cried, immediately pulling Aria, who was the closest, into a hug—my sister laughed lightly as she returned it. Judy waved me over, and as I didn't want her crying to escalate, I joined.

"Ohhh, it's been so long since both of you have been here together!"

It had. Almost three years since Aria and I had both been within the Witwicky household at the same time. I was the one that spent the most time here out of us two, and as much as I loved to see my remaining family, I was always injured during the stays.

After… _Sigma_, I spent several months in therapy and in a familiar place that wouldn't set me off. Aria had flown back and forth over a dozen times during my stay because she was practically my lifeline at that point. I'd lost the only other person I'd loved so dearly, even the notion of long-term separation from Aria at that point set me off into a panic attack.

Even now, the idea of going a dozen weeks without some sort of contact left me jittery.

Judy pulled back, giving Aria a once over before doing the same to me but settled with giving me a stern look. "Heaven forbid you come see us without any injuries."

I laughed sheepishly. "Sorry?"

She rolled her eyes, before turning to Bumblebee, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker with a wide typical Judy-like smile. "Hello. It's lovely to finally meet you."

Right, it had almost slipped my mind that Judy and Ron were in the know—especially since Bumblebee would be staying with them. It was safer if they were aware of the fact an alien was going to be using their garage as a home for the next few years.

It left me feeling just the slightest bit odd—I wasn't great at separating my own feelings from the All-Spark's influence yet. There were somethings I could get my head around, but others were a lot more complex than something I could speak to the Autobots about.

There's a difference in theory and practical, as they say. But, I believe the oddity was stemming from the fact that Bumblebee would be staying here—it was the only real explanation I could think possible at the moment.

"And it's just as lovely to meet you, ma'am!" Sideswipe beamed, reaching out to shake my aunt's hand.

The Autobots had been doing researching into Earth's cultures and greetings after a small incident where (I'd been comatose at the time, so this was coming from Logan) when Logan went to greet Optimus' holoform with a handshake, the Prime had looked visibly confused and a tad bit worried.

It was explained that since Cybertronians varied in heights a lot of the time, they didn't have handshakes—in fact, most Cybertronians had weapons on their right hands and holding your hand out like that was like aiming your weapon. Hence why Optimus was a bit concerned at the greeting.

It was smoothed over quickly and the Autobots agreed to look into Earth culture in response so there would be less confusion next time they met someone. It was sweet of them.

"Well, aren't you well mannered!" Judy smiled.

Sunstreaker snorted and Bee grinned widely behind his hand. I bit my lip to stop myself from following Sunstreaker's example. Aria giggled quietly.

"Why thank you!" Sideswipe answered, then pointed to himself. "I'm Sideswipe, my brother is Sunstreaker and shortie is Bumblebee."

"Hey!" Bee rebutted with a pout. "My holoform's not that short!"

I laughed, reaching over and ruffling his hair—he was shorter than all of us, though he did come close to Aria.

"Zelda!" He ducked away from my hand and I grinned, rushing after him. He screeched and began running around the front yard in an attempt to shake me, but I kept up, laughing all the while. The spectators all joining in with the laughter.

I followed Bee into the house and I finally tackled him, he squawked as we went down. I took to tickling him and he squealed, begging me to stop and I only did so when I felt my arm begin to quiver. I clenched my fist and grimaced. A hand gently wrapping around my wrist made me look up. Bee smiled weakly, his concern fluttering over, silently asking if it hurt.

Bumblebee's holoform was that of a sixteen-year-old, just a year 'younger' than Sam and Mikaela—because really, Bee was a lot older by Cybertronian standard. Anyway, Bee had short and scruffy blonde hair with a square jaw, he had neat and defined brows in contract to Sunstreaker. He looked quite mature while also retaining an adolescent appearance in both personality and speech.

"It's fine." I answered.

He nodded, brows furrowing with his concern. "Just tell us if it does, okay?"

I nodded, our attention, however, was drawn to the front door as the others all joined us, perhaps finding the sudden silence a bit worrying.

"You both good?" Aria asked first, loping into the house; her red, blue-tipped hair swished at her movements, it was a stark contest to the creams and browns of the Witwicky hallway.

"All good." Bee grinned and pushed himself to his feet, pulling me up with him.

"Should you be straining yourself?" Judy asked frettingly.

"All healed." I chimed. "Just some aches occasionally, Auntie."

Judy gave me a look, like she didn't know whether to believe me—not that I was surprised, she and Ron had been told a little more about what Aria and I do. The government considered them A-Okay with knowing the bare essentials now, but it _was_ a surprise as D.A.A was something very few had clearance to know existed.

I noticed the distinct lack of Uncle Ron and Sam, I voiced it.

"Oh, Ron went to pick Sam up." Judy smiled. Right, it was a school week and Sam was once again carless. "Would anyone like some drinks—can you even drink?" She turned to the holoforms curiously.

"Yes!" Bee beamed, arm shooting up into the air. "Ratchet adjusted the software to allow us too!"

Judy laughed, eyes twinkling in amusement, Bumblebee didn't really act like a sixteen-year-old, it was obvious Judy was gonna love spoiling him. "Well then, we've got plenty to choose from!"

Bee giggled and followed after her, Aria pat my shoulder and followed.

"Your Aunt isn't nearly as bad as you made her out to be." Sideswipe commented, tone amused.

I turned to him. His holoform was practically identical to Sunstreaker, however, his hair was a short but curly dark brown—a lovely shade at that—and his brows were as defined, but unlike Sunstreaker's, his were cleaner. And again, much like his brother, Sides' eyes were a muted version of his real ones.

I don't think I'd ever think they weren't beautiful, oddly enough.

I snorted and shot him a look. "You haven't seen her angry yet. You've seen Aria's freak out, well Judy's is worse."

Sideswipe shuddered. "Damn, really? Aria's Ratchet worthy."

I nodded.

Sunstreaker snorted, lips curling upwards. "Best not piss her off then, yeah?"

I grinned. "Yep! Anyway, let's get our bags from your forms now. Saves going back out later."

So we returned outside and did just that, the bags were taken upstairs and into the spare bedrooms. For some reason, Uncle Ron and Auntie Judy had gone with a four-bedroom house, and while it gave Aria and I each a room of our own when here, it was just Uncle Ron was a bit of a cheap-ass. It was something that always came to mind whenever I was here, but I never got around to asking.

I opened my door—which was the back left, Sam's on the right—and dropped my bag on the spinney chair. Sunstreaker put my other on the bed. I wanted to sigh because bed's weren't _really_ my thing. I'd gotten used to sleeping on a hammock because for some reason it helped minimise the nightmares. Never understood my mind but who was I to question it when it worked in my favour?

Sideswipe appeared moments later after having dropped Aria's bag in her room and leant on the doorframe.

"What's with the look?" Sides' voice brought me from my musing. I blinked up at him.

"What look?"

"The wistful look."

"Oh." Was my oh-so intelligent response. It got a smile from the twins though. "I'm not the biggest fan of beds. I'm a hammock girl all the way."

It was their turn to blink—in unison, mind you. It was a funny sight and I bit my lip to stop the grin, which I failed at.

I watched as their eyes dimmed, no doubt looking up what hammocks were. Sideswipe started laughing, falling back onto the doorframe.

Sunstreaker smirked. "Really?"

I nodded. "I've always had a fondness for them, sleeping in a bed is hard these days."

Of course, I wasn't going to just tell them that sleeping in a bed left me at the mercy of nightmares—_memories_—of _Sigma_. It was a horrible time. It was why I felt so unworthy of being the host to the All-Spark. The death and horror that I saw—committed—it wasn't anything I'd wish upon anyone.

"_Anyway_." I grinned, not allowing my thoughts to linger on the topic any longer, it wouldn't do me any good. Sideswipe snickered. "Since there isn't much here, would you guys like to go out? There's a park about ten minutes from here."

The park that Sam had taken Miles and I too. Since I'd gotten out to let Sam go after Mikaela, I'd found that it only took a half-hour to walk back. So by car, it would be just under half of that, or maybe a bit more considering the time of day.

"Park?" Sunstreaker perked up.

"Yeah, it's a _really_ big pretty plot of public land." I answered. "And since it's a school day, there'll probs be little to not people."

"Pit yeah, let's do it!" Sides grinned, reaching forward to nab my hand and led me back downstairs. I snorted with laughter, glancing over my shoulder at Sunstreaker who was following behind in amusement.

We shared a smile.

* * *

This time I was with Sideswipe, pointing out the directions to the park. The warmth of the day was getting to that point where you could feel how late it was getting—that gorgeous balmy heat, the evening warmth people dream about.

I couldn't stop the content hum that escaped as I leant my head against Side's doorframe and allowed the wind and warm sun to brush my cheeks.

Sideswipe's amusement was apparent but I didn't care, shooting him an easy smile. He chuckled.

"This left." I offered as the turning came up. Sideswipe turned onto the slip road with Sunstreaker a few moments behind him.

As we drove through the park gates, the people walking all turned their attention towards the mechs, the sound of their alt-forms an almost purr. It didn't help that Lamborghinis were very beautiful cars too. So there was bound to be gawkers.

Eventually, we reached one of the smaller lakes, it was also the quietest out of the four that were in the park, and we climbed out. I didn't waste any time with pulling off my shoes and socks, rolling up my jeans enough that I could step into the warm water.

I wiggled my toes, burying them under the sand. I didn't turn when the other two followed but only one actually entered the water. I twisted my head to grin at Sideswipe when he stopped next to me.

I pouted over my shoulder at Sunstreaker, as the brunet twin turned to face his brother, resting an arm on my shoulder. "Not coming in, Sunny?"

He sneered, arms crossed. "Don't call me that, but no, I'm fine where I am."

I grinned, breathlessly laughing as Sides pouted. "How _rude_."

Sides turned to me, sharing my grin, optics twinkling in amusement. "He never joins in with anything fun like this, Doll! He's so asocial and cantankerous!"

I snorted in a vain attempt to not laugh, I slapped a hand over my mouth to stifle the sound.

"Sideswipe!" Sunstreaker snapped. "Just because I don't want to get into the water, doesn't make me either of those things!"

I batted at Sides' arm that was on my shoulder, then once he'd done so, stepped back and—

—kicked.

Sideswipe yelped at the sudden splash of water and stumbled back, so unbalanced that he lost his footing and ended up sitting in the ankle-deep water, gapping like a fish.

I laughed boisterously. Sunstreaker himself burst into laughter.

"Your face." The blonde twin snickered.

Sideswipe glared at him, but then that look was transferred to me. The look turned into something else—something _devious_.

Oh, no.

I turned tail and ran out the water with a squeal, listening as Sideswipe scrambled to his feet and ran after me. Sunstreaker continued to laugh, at some time he'd fallen to the ground, almost wheezing as I did a complete circle around the lake, Sides never far behind me.

"Sunstreaker!" I squawked. "Help!"

He grinned, getting to his feet just as I approached and before I could even question what he had planned, lifted me from my feet. I gasped in surprise as I found myself slung over his shoulder as he himself turned and started running.

I looked up to see Sides grinning so widely that it _had_ to hurt. He laughed at my perplexed expression—I hadn't expected to be swept off my feet!

Eventually, our playing trailed off when my muscles began quivering again (stupid things), leaving us laying on the grass, watching as the sun was beginning to make a noticeable decent in the horizon.

It was Sunstreaker that broke the peaceful silences. "It have to admit, I might… dislike the amount of dirt this planet has but it's beautiful."

I turned my gaze onto him, the sun catching his form at just the right angle to create a rembrandt shadow. My chest suddenly felt heavier, heart beating just that bit faster. I turned my gaze forward.

"Tell me about Cybertron." I asked.

That seemed to surprise them, both glancing at me. "Really?" Sides asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, Ratchet said I'd probably end up knowing quite a lot of Cybertronian later but I wanna hear it from your perspectives first."

They smiled.

"Well, obviously it's a completely metallic plant." Sides started. "So different from Earth, yet at the same time they're both so similar."

"It has one sun, much like your solar system but we have two moons. A large silver one, Ukla, and a small pink one, only one-sixth the size of Ukla called Thos."

"Pink?!" I gapped and they laughed

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed, I want to put a lot more depth into this story than Epoch which is why it's taken me so long to write. I want to get at least several chapters complete before I even think of posting another. Hopefully, that will be soonish. Atm, I don't have any sort of timeline.**

**During this mini-hiatus, I will be working on my Prime-verse story and G1 stories. So if you want more of Zelda, it's 1 New Message or Remnant, which is non-Zelda related, instead, it's the adventures of a sparkling of Soundwave called Resonate while she lives with the Decepticons.**

Song 1_: The World is Ours_ by Volunteer

Song 2: _Burn the Stars_ by Massive Vibes

Song 3: _Blackout_ by AViVA

**I know none of these songs were out in 2007 but who cares really? Lol, anyway, below are face claims for the D.A.A team as well as Holoforms.**

_Human actors:_

Zelda: Karen Gillan

Aria: Isla Fisher

Logan: Channing Tatum

Eden: Mario Lopez

Mia: Satomi Ishihara

Michel: Chadwick Boseman

Adan: Lucas Till

Soma: Ranbir Kapoor

_Holoform actors:_

Optimus- Colin O'Donoghue

Ratchet- Mark Ruffalo

Ironhide- Jeremy Renner

Bumblebee- young Alex Pettyfer

Sideswipe- Cole Sprouse

Sunstreaker- Dylan Sprouse

Jazz: Kel Mitchell


	2. Dreams That Haunt Us

**It's been a while, I hit a roadblock when it came to writing some chapters, so I focused on others for a while (and my life outside of fanfic lol) and left this project untouched. I have five chapters complete and hopefully more soon.**

**Anyway, I thought since I've got this chapter lying around that I might as well post it for you all.**

**I've made minor spelling corrections in Chapter 1.**

* * *

**Chapter 2: **Dreams That Haunt Us

_The harsh and bright spotlights lit up the arena._

_She listened as her blood pumped, her ears buzzing with static as the cheers of the MECH soldiers echoed as background noise to her. She blinked, eyes peering at her opponent; the long blonde-haired woman was taller than her, muscles that showed her workout with a wicked and excited smirk._

_There was a voice, just as distant as the cheers, that announced the fight. He called the match to begin and Zelda shot off towards the woman, bare feet slapping against the stone floor._

_She hadn't been the only one that charged, her opponent, Diana—if she recalled correctly but Zelda cared little about names, her sole focus on defeating her—did too._

_Zelda ducked the punch, throwing her own one and catching Diana's stomach._

_They threw and pulled punches and kicks, even a tackle from Diana at one time but neither was willing to back down, unwilling to lose because there would be consequences if you lost._

_It was every person for their self within the arena after all._

_She was just fine with that, feeling the way her lips curled up savagely, her blood pumping as she beat into Diana with her newly acquired enhanced strength._

_Diana kicked her legs out and she went down but rolled in time to miss a kick aimed for her head._

_She tackled Diana as she was getting to her feet, her cybernetic hand found blonde hair and with strong and forceful motion smashed Diana's head down on the concrete floor a brutal number of five times._

_When Diana choked, falling practically limp underneath her, did she finally back way; rolling backwards and staying crouched low like a wild and feral animal._

"_And the winner is 84!"_

_The roar of cheers at bets won and jeers at the fallen woman._

_She giggled, sitting back in a frog-like position as she licked her bloody lips._

Zelda jolted awake, torso pitching upwards as a scream threatened to tear from her tight throat. Instead, she slapped land over her mouth as she failed to stop the sob, her heart beating wildly and painfully fast within her chest.

Wide and wild eyes searched around the room, like she expected someone to be standing there—but that was just it, from her time during _Sigma_, it had been wired into her that you must always remain alert, never allow weakness to be shown or suffer the consequences.

She suffered those consequences enough to know what they entailed.

The door opening sharply and suddenly drew the start of a scream from her, blonde hair appeared and—_Diana_ came rushing into the room, a wicked grin across her bloody face and throat.

" Невозможно!" She squeaked, clutching at her hair, pulling and tugging painfully. "Я убил вас!"

Diana's shape shifted and suddenly it was Bee's holoform that stood there, where he immediately climbed onto the bed and into her lap, throwing his arms around her.

She fought momentarily against the body holding her—the laughing and cheering echoing loudly and—_it wouldn't stop._

It was only when she was smothered by not one, two or three, but the seven bonds she now shared. The smothering drowned out the cheering and laughing, the images of blood on her hands and allowed her brain to begin to process what was happening.

It didn't stop the sobs, however.

Sideswipe was next into the room, only seconds behind Bumblebee. He crawled onto the other side, pulling Zelda into his arms from Bee, allowing the younger Autobot to climb into Zelda's lab and cuddle her that way.

The contact, the smothering and gentle humming from the faux-heart beat from the holoforms was enough to soothe the sobbing, quickly drawing the exhausted and phantom-aching Zelda to sleep once more, only this time dreamless.

Which was all they could ask of.

Sunstreaker was last into the room, pulling the door too as he took in the sight of his brother and Bumblebee cuddled against Zelda.

He exhaled and sat on the edge of the bed.

Bee was already falling back to recharge, and Sunstreaker nudged his brother to do the same. _~Recharge Sides~_

He got a sleepy grumble, which was likely supposed to be a protest but ultimately the red twin fell into recharge also, never once letting up his grip on Zelda.

Sunstreaker sat stiffly on the bed's edge, watching the recharging trio for a long time, thoughts all jumbled. The terror had hit him—them—all so suddenly and it was accompanied with this deep aching pain and horror.

They'd known it was Zelda the moment he and Sideswipe had come online—his audio receptors only picking up the thrashing of her form but no sounds other than the slight hitching of her inhales.

She'd been suffering silently, and it was only when it hit them all full force—what had awoken them—that she herself had been pulled from the chargefright.

But the question was what had she been dreaming off? What had scared her so much that it fed down their bonds with her? And why now, after the month of knowing her, was this the first time she'd had a chargefright?

_He watched as Zelda dumped her bag onto the chair, putting the one he carried on the bed. When Zelda didn't move again, he turned to look at her only to see she was staring at the bed with a pensive but…longing expression._

_It startled him a bit to be truthful, he'd not seen such an expression from Zelda yet—a playful version, sure, but a serious one, not so much._

_Sideswipe appeared at the door, seeming to notice it as well. "What's with the look?"_

_His voice startled Zelda from her thoughts, blinking in surprise, brows raising a tad as she glanced at Sideswipe. "What look?"_

"_The wistful look?"_

Sunstreaker wasn't sure why that memory of all things came back to him but there was definitely more behind the look than just her desire for her hammock. It had bugged him for a while afterwards but didn't want to just ask her about it, especially after their time at the park.

The quiet sound of the door opening drew his attention, his holoform's body tensed but the sight of ginger and blue hair had him relaxing. Aria lent on the door frame, eyes lingering on Zelda before she turned her attention to Sunstreaker.

She smiled weakly, looking exhausted, but her eyes expressed her gratefulness. Sunstreaker nodded.

Without a word, Aria turned and left, closing the door behind her.

* * *

I woke up that morning feeling incredibly warm, I blinked, _odd_. But memories from last night, choppy as they were, flashed back; I swallowed thickly, screwing my eyes closed and forced myself to breathe evenly, no point working myself up again.

Finally, I turned my attention to the blonde holoform with his face buried in my stomach. Bumblebee was snoring softly, almost purring, and it was _incredibly_ adorable.

My eyes were taken to the body on my right, the one cuddling me against them. Dark hair entered my vision, Sideswipe. I exhaled quietly but deeply at his peaceful expression.

I swallowed again as this weird tight fluttery feeling settled in my chest, spreading.

_Damnit_.

I wanted to hiss at this unfairity, eyes burning. This wasn't what I wanted, I didn't want to suffer anymore—why couldn't I be allowed to just turn off my emotions to anything that would get me hurt?

I'd given it freely once before, and look at where it got Adan.

Dead.

He was dead and I was alive and—and I'd hate myself for the rest of my life because of that.

Because Silas loved to make me suffer, loved to hurt others and…

It gritted my teeth and tore my eyes away from Sideswipe and they landed on Sunstreaker instead.

_Блядь! Why?!_

My hands were shaking as I gently pushed Bumblebee off me and removed Sideswipe's arms so that I could get off the damn bed. I needed space, I needed to _breathe_.

I stumbled my way out of the room, closing the door behind me and made my way to the bathroom. The cool air that came in through the bathroom window made my mouth dry but as I sat on the edge of the bath, I could breathe.

I buried my face in my hands. _Блядь, почему я?_

I wasn't kidding when I said there were thousands of better people than I am, far more deserving then I am because I was going to get attached to them—it was guaranteed now.

And… and I couldn't let that happen.

But I wanted too—but I _can't_, not only for my sake but for theirs too.

They didn't need someone like me.

Someone who walked the line between sanity and insanity.

Someone's who's been on both sides and loved it, hated it, relied on it, was thankful for it.

I let out a breath, eyes burning again and I didn't stop the tears as they escaped but I furiously wiped them away.

I bit back the humourless and bitter laugh that wanted to escape, my throat burned in response for some _fucking_ reason.

Three months since my last breakdown, I'd been doing so damn well too.

I forced myself to just breathe, desperately trying not to let my mind wander and find another damn sinkhole to drown itself in. One breakdown was enough.

I pushed myself to my feet, reaching for the mirror door above the sink and pulled it open. On the top shelf was prescription medication, most notably my Zoloft prescription. I took several seconds, debating if I wanted to take one.

I unscrewed the lid and tipped the bottle, letting one fall onto my palm where I threw it into my mouth and dry swallowed. I'd long since learned to do it without any liquid.

I dumped the bottle back into the cupboard and splashed some water onto my face in some attempt to freshen up. I gazed into the mirror and bloodshot, puffy eyes stared back.

Abandoning the bathroom I moved downstairs where I spotted Aria sitting on the settee. She looked up as I came in, she smiled but her expression tightened. "What's wrong?"

I sighed heavily and flopped down beside her, resting my head on her shoulder.

"Sunbird?" She questioned. "I can tell you've been crying."

I swallowed. "Just remembering my dream."

Aria frowned, she likely didn't believe me; she sighed. "Alright."

I grinned, reaching up and poked her cheek, only to get an electric shock. We yelped in unison, sharing a look before laughing.

"It's been a while since that's happened." She giggled, resting her cheek on my head.

I laughed breathlessly, nuzzling my nose into her shoulder as I continued to grin. "Last time it was with Eden while we'd been on the mats. Scared the bloody crap out of him."

Aria trailed off her laughing as I hummed, quite content with just staying snuggled against Aria for a while longer.

"You wanna talk about your nightmare?"

Or maybe not. My jaw clamped shut as I stared ahead, intending not to say anything.

"Zelda." Aria began.

I hissed lowly, sitting upright. "No, _I don't_."

"Zelda." She tried again but I was on my feet and heading for the kitchen. She sighed loudly and I twitched, flesh fingers trembling and I clenched both hands into fists. I needed to punch something but there wasn't anything damnit.

Instead, I tried to occupy myself by making breakfast. The bowl, the cereal, milk, and spoon. The latter of which I may or may not have clenched in my fist and bent.

I raised the crooked thing with a deadpan expression.

_Shitty weak metal._

I straightened it out again and took a mouthful, dumping the spoon back into the bowl as I put the milk away and chewed.

"Zel-da!" Bumblebee's chirpy voice appeared behind me and I turned to greet him.

"Be—_Oomph_!" He barrelled into me and I hit the counter behind me. "Bee, what's the matter?"

However as I set my hands on his shoulders, and before he could answer, I zapped him too. Bumblebee's holoform tensed, his eyes widened as his breath hitched and—

Well, his holoform fizzled out of existences.

"The fuck?" I couldn't stop the words from escaping and obviously drawn from my swear, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe came rushing around the corner.

"Doll?" Sideswipe asked, face concerned.

"What happened, are you hurt?" Sunstreaker questioned.

"I'm fine." I waved my hands. "But… Bee's holo glitched when I accidentally gave him an electric shock."

The twins shared a confused look. "Electric shock?" They questioned.

"Primus!" Bee appeared from the doorway to the garage, which was where his body was. "You gotta try that!"

"Try what?" Sunstreaker raised a brow.

"She shocked me with All-Spark power and short-circuited the software but gave me a massive overload on energon through the holo somehow!" Bee grinned, holo shaking as if he was on a sugar rush. "It's amazing!"

I spotted Sideswipe eyeing me up and I shot him a deadpan look. He grinned, shuffled forward and I held my palm out because if he was insistent might as well make it easier for him.

He touched me and, much like the Bee, shocked him. His eyes widened, even Sunstreaker behind him tensed, choking on a breath as their holoforms cut out much like Bee's had.

Talking about Bee, he was currently giggling away.

Damn.

* * *

By lunchtime, we were packed and ready to head back home. I road with Sunstreaker again because Aria went with Sideswipe and I was keen on avoiding her for a while.

Don't get me wrong, I love her dearly and I know she's concerned but nothing she could do would ever _fix_ me.

I'm nothing more than an escaped lab-rat after all.

* * *

It was dark by the time we arrived back home and I wanted nothing more than to curl up in my hammock. I murmured a thank you to Sunstreaker as I climbed out and pulled my bags with me.

He hummed in response before transforming. He stretched lightly, rolling his shoulders before sighing.

I began my travel to my room, intent on just ignoring the outside world for the rest of the day and waking up tomorrow morning having put all this behind me.

But it would seem that wouldn't be happening as Optimus appeared and called my name. "Zelda."

I stopped abruptly, almost freezing. I hesitated a second before turning. "Yeah?"

He knelt. "I wish to speak to you regarding last night if you would."

His tone was soft and I knew he meant nothing malicious because the bond would give it away. I let out a breath.

"I had a nightmare is all, Optimus." I offered. I wasn't really a lie, just a twist of the true.

But the look in Optimus' eyes said he saw through it. "Forgive me for not believe it was just a 'nightmare' as you humans call them."

My shoulders slumped, I felt kid a damn kid being scolded—all I'd need was to shoe the ground and I'd complete the look.

I shrugged. "I live a dangerous lifestyle with what I do, Optimus, I've seen some shit. It sometimes just comes back to me in the form of nightmares."

"Hmm." Was the response.

I suddenly wanted to pout, damn.

"You are a stubborn one, you are aware yes?" He rumbled, tone light.

I grinned. "I know." I blinked as I recalled what happened this morning. "Actually now that I have you here. I've been having some trouble with zapping." I wiggled my gloved hands, after the third time I'd zap Bee I thought it best. "The guys said it was All-Spark related."

Optimus offered his hand, I stepped on. "It would be best to consult Ratchet about this."

And thus I was taken to the alien Medic, who was just as curious about the situation. He scanned my form and hummed.

"It seems you already have a somewhat of a build-up of Energon." He offered.

"Energon?" I echoed before frowning. "Isn't it fatal to humans?"

"Normally yes." He drawled. "But you, Zelda Larsson, are not an average young woman."

I nearly flinched, instead I pouted. "How rude of you, Ratchet."

He grunted, rolling his optics.

"Well, if I have a build-up what's gonna happen?" I asked.

"You need a way to successfully harness the power or pass it on. You should be able to create energon." Ratchet offered. "How many times did you zap the twins and Bee?"

I crossed my arms. "Bee three times, and Sunstreaker and Sideswipe each once but they both glitched together."

"Twins are more likely to do most things together, glitching could just so happen to be one of them." Ratchet offered, before hold out his own hand. "Now I want to see if you've managed to make a dent into the build-up or not by zapping them."

I eyed him, glancing to Optimus, who nodded. I sighed and pulled my right glove off. I brushed my hand on to his and the familiar zap happened. Ratchet's form became ridged.

I watched as he stumbled slightly, shuddering his optics and Optimus reached out and helped stabilise him.

"You okay?" I asked slowly—I'd not seen a direct reaction, I've only touched the holoforms. The reaction was a bit startling.

He cleared his throat—or did the Cybertronian equivalent. "Fine, fine. I was not expecting such a boost to my systems."

I snorted, turning to Optimus with a grin, offering my hand.

"Perhaps another time." He rumbled, optics flickering with mirth.

Ratchet offered his hand again, I touched but this time nothing happened. "Ah, like I'd thought."

My brows went up. "So I'm like a super-powered battery that recharges itself."

"In essence yes."

I stared at my hands curiously, that was kinda cool.

"Now that is sorted." Ratchet said, I blinked and turned to him. He glanced to Optimus quick before back to me. I narrowed my eyes—he better not.

"Optimus has likely already mentioned it but—"

"Ratchet." Optimus tried lightly but I interrupted.

"Nope!" I answered, throwing my hands up, spinning on my heels and made for the door.

"Zelda—" Ratchet tried but I cut him off.

"You're _not_ the first to ask, Ratchet, but you _are_ going to be the last!" I stormed out.

* * *

**So yeah, Zelda isn't actually as mentally stable as she portrays**

**Poor baby, forgive me :')**

**Невозможно – impossible**

**Я убил вас! – I killed you!**

**Блядь! – Fuck!**

**Блядь, почему я? – Fuck , why me?**


	3. Intel

**We'll be getting into the action next chapter ;)**

**Chapter 3:** Intel

[Warning: light mentions of drug addiction and a few other things]

* * *

"_It's a really clear sky tonight." He murmured._

"_Yeah." She breathed, their eyes trained to the night sky that was littered with stars and the moon with the bare minimum of those white fluffy clouds. "It's surprisingly cold too."_

_The blonde male snorted, head falling forward as he laughed._

_The ginger hissed, reaching out and whacking his arm. "Don't laugh, Adan! Seriously, it's gotta be like five Fahrenheit, Nevada don't get anything lower than ten on average!"_

_Adan just continued to laugh, falling back onto the sandy ground and Zelda groaned._

* * *

I woke with a sharp inhale, but continued to lay there, eyes closed. It was quiet and peaceful and warm.

I hated it.

I loathed it.

It was too damn _quiet_.

Which was strange because I loved the silence. Just seemed today just wasn't a day I did.

I sat up with a sharp hissy exhale, slipping from my hammock and wandered to my kitchenette to get myself a pint of water. A glance at the clock said it was half five. That was normal, it was a rare occasion I slept past five.

Once I'd made my glass of water, I pulled out my medication again, setting the bottle on the breakfast bar as I sat on a stall.

It was always a battle of whether I should take one or not.

More often than not I didn't, leaving them for more emergency situations but it properly _led_ to more breakdowns because I wasn't taking the prescription.

I… was scared taking them.

There have been a few things I've feared over my life, most I've managed to overcome, some not as well. Howbeit, medication is the one I feared the most after everything.

Ironically enough, it's my newest fear, only taking on my hesitation towards them late two thousand and five.

Or maybe it wasn't the tablets themselves that I feared. Maybe it was the chance I'd allow myself to fall back onto dependency, fall back onto my ways of taking them and taking them.

It hadn't started out bad—I hadn't even realised I've been taking more then I should've until I ran out of my monthly prescription to early—_way_ too early. I kept my mouth shut but found myself becoming jittery with withdraws.

I began to relapse to who I'd been after _Sigma_, the paranoid and prone to violent outbursts girl.

The apathetic and psychopathic test-subject created by MECH.

I tried my damn best to act as if nothing had been wrong but being that person was a stark contrast to what I'd slowly been becoming again during my recovery.

Aria caught onto the fact before long.

I can remember that look of disappointment on her face at the lack of trust and felt like my heart had been ripped from my chest.

I remember… I remember a lot of things that I wish I could forget.

_But I can't, _I swallowed a pill and this time did so with my water.

I felt as the pill slid down my throat and grimace, loathing it but I knew that I should take them to be on the safe side. My attitude yesterday had been unlike myself but… maybe that was just really _me_.

I smiled bitterly.

I… I was a PTSD riddled, mentally scared, bloody-handed human.

I don't believe in God, nor do I believe in heaven or hell but not for the first time I wished there was a hell so that I could suffer for what I'd done after I die.

* * *

A distraction was necessary, I started my morning workout routine in response. I'd been able to return to it last week after Aria's all clear. My shoulder was completely healed with only light scarring left behind.

I got an ache if I strained myself, but I could mostly ignore it, I'd had far worse injuries I've needed to recover from.

I swung myself up from the lower bar, spinning twice before releasing and swinging myself to the taller bar. I spun again but this into a handstand where I did the splits, turned around and fell the way I'd come up from.

The Uneven Bars were one of my favourites when it came to my excises. It helps me retain my upper body strength, a skill needed a lot more than you'd think; the D.A.A needed you physically fit for all types of jobs—even the guys did them occasionally but as far as I'm aware, I'm the only one that does it as part of my every morning routine.

There was a knock at my door. I blinked and shouted just loud enough: "It's unlocked!"

The door opened and Sides' peeked is head in just as I pulled myself into a handstand and turned to face the door.

He stared at me in surprise, just lingering in the doorway for a moment until I heard Sunstreaker question by he wasn't moving. Sunstreaker peered in himself a moment later, his response was a more controlled look of surprise.

"Morning?" I offered, raising a brow at the odd reaction.

Sideswipe stumbled in, grinning. "Awesome. I'd been wondering what they were for!"

I snorted.

"It looks like it takes a lot of upper body strength." Sunstreaker noted.

I nodded and spun, releasing the bar and stuck the landing. I raised my arms up, taking a deep breath, then lowered them as I exhaled.

Sideswipe whistled and I grinned, wiggling my brows at him, he snickered.

"What's up?" I finally asked; it was only… I snagged a glance at the wall clock. Oh, it was half seven.

"We came to see if you were up yet. Ratchet asked us to come get you, said he had something to talk to you about regarding the All-Spark." Sunstreaker answered.

"Right this second?"

"No." A shake of the head. "But it seemed important."

I nodded. "Let me take a shower first and I'll head on over."

I got affirmatives from them both and quickly made for the bathroom.

* * *

Honestly, they should stop being surprised by Zelda, the femme just kept whipping out new things about her and at this rate they'd never _not_ be surprised.

Sideswipe grinned all the same because something about that constant surprise left him wanting to know more about her. It was like… there was a human phase, he was sure, something about an onion and as you peel it, there's just another layer there.

He wasn't quite sure, but he could understand the general gist of what it was meant to mean.

His brother approaching a desk of photo frames drew his attention. He sent a questioning pulse; he received a tug in return. Sideswipe did as he'd been silently asked and followed until he stood beside his brother.

The photos all consisted off team members, a few of an older pair with Zelda and Aria which clued them in to the fact it was likely their creator and carrier. Another of a few other adults with them, likely teachers. But there was a darker-skinned boy, that from the looks of it was the D.A.A members age but they'd never seen him.

He wasn't the only one they didn't recognise—there was a blond boy, often in pictures with either Zelda or all of them.

It wasn't hard to see it was someone Zelda cared deeply about… but who was it? The photos made it easy to see they were close, possibly even more than friends.

Was… was this _Adan_? It clicked in unison. An odd feeling settled in the twin's chassises at the thought because Zelda looked at Adan with this adoration, like he was one of the only people that kept her afloat—_that gave her purpose._

But it didn't actually answer the question on whether it was Adan or not.

_~Who knows, Sides~_ Sunstreaker murmured across their bond.

_~The D.A.A members~_ Sideswipe pointed out. _~We_ could _ask Zelda when she gets out~_

Sunstreaker sighed. _~I don't know if that's a good idea, Sides~_

Sideswipe tilted his helm in confusion. _~Why don't you think so?~_

_~Remember her reaction to her nightmare? And the day following?~_

Oh.

_~Yeah,_ oh~ His brother responded dryly.

_~Still~_ He argued.

Sunstreaker vented heavily. _~Then it'll be your fault, got it? If we get scolded for putting her in another bad mood, I'll be snitching _exactly_ why to Optimus~_

Sideswipe grimaced. Optimus had approached them the last Earth night-cycle, after Zelda had retreated to her room, about her reaction and if she was—not exactly hostile, more snappish—at them for asking.

Sunstreaker hadn't missed the way Zelda had been avoiding Aria, the shorter twin often sending her sister worried, sorrowful, and empathetic looks when Zelda wouldn't looking. It was obvious they'd missed something happening between them.

It was likely Zelda didn't even share her chargefight with Aria. It was…

(His processor had picked up the slight redness in Zelda's eyes when they'd found her in the kitchen that morning. It was obvious she'd been crying)

Sunstreaker wasn't sure what to think because humans, despite their similarities to Cybertronians in some ways, were vastly different too. It was odd for him to think that human twins didn't share bonds like he and his brother did (or any bonds at all.)

That Aria didn't know what Zelda was going through and that Zelda _wouldn't_ share.

But from what they'd heard and seen, why? Why didn't Zelda share—she held Aria in such high regard, like a _lifeline_ in some ways that it confused them why she _didn't_ want to share what she'd seen in her chargefright.

_~There could be plenty of reasons, Sunny~_ Sideswipe offered.

Yeah, that might be true but… _~Something doesn't seem right, okay?~ _he answered. _~They're pretty attuned to each other, so_ why?~

The door of the bathroom opening snapped them out of their bond speak and Sideswipe didn't answer, he wasn't sure _how_ to answer truthfully.

As Zelda stepped out of the bathroom, she was drying her hair still but was completely dressed in some loose black jogging bottoms and a white tank top, which gave them the entire view of her cybernetic arm. It was fascinating to look at, especially since humans hadn't supposedly gotten that far along with prosthetics yet—so how did Zelda have one?

She rolled her right shoulder and their optics were drawn to the meeting of skin and metal where there was scar tissue. It wasn't unsightly, but it definitely wasn't pretty.

Zelda sighed softly, a healthy red flush coated her cheeks as she pottered over to her cupboard, pulling out a pair of socks.

She finished towelling her hair and pulled on the socks she'd taken out, slipping on a pair of shoes.

"Hey, Zelda?" Sideswipe voiced; she paused her motion of picking up her hairbrush to turn to him.

"Yeah?"

Sideswipe licked his lips. "Who's this in the photo." He pointed at one of the photos of just Zelda and Adan.

Zelda frowned in mild confusion, picking up the brush as she came over. Sideswipe picked the frame up and held it out for her. Zelda stopped as soon as her eyes landed on it; she stared at the photo with the same wistful look as before, but only this time it was full of pain and guilt. "Name's Adan, he's dead."

That was it. That was all she said before tearing her gaze away and got on with brushing her hair.

They resisted the urge to wince, the blunt way she's responded and clamped down proved Sunstreaker right.

_~Whoops_~ Sideswipe bit his lip.

_~Whoops indeed~_ Sunstreaker growled, shoving his brother over the bond roughly.

* * *

"Hey Ratchet." I greeted as I trailed Sideswipe and Sunstreaker into Ratchet's temporary Med-Bay.

His holoform turned to greet us in return with a nod of his head. "Good… morning." It seemed he was slowly getting used to Earthen greetings.

"Sides and Sunstreaker said you needed me?" I glanced at the twins when I mentioned them.

"Yes." Ratchet grumbled and waved me over; I did so. I was acutely aware of the twins following shortly behind. "I've been blueprinting a device that will hide your new All-Spark signature."

I pursed my lips. "How come I've not been discovered already if so?"

"Your signal is not strong enough yet." Sunstreaker explained, I turned to him. "You absorbed the All-Spark a month and a half ago—barely any time, really. Your body has also been recovering, and even so the smallest amount would be covered by _our_ life signatures and ultimately blocked because we can't risk revealing our location to just anyone."

I tilted my head, noting that Ratchet had nodded at Sunstreaker's explanation. Curious. "You guys can hide your signatures?"

"Yes." Ratchet crossed his holoform's arms. "It's something we're all created with but only once we reach a certain…. _age_ can we learn to use it. Mostly so that Sparklings and Younglings can be found in cases of emergency."

Interesting. 'If only humans had such a thing." The number of missing children would be near non-existent. Though, that just opened up a whole other bunch of questions I wanted to ask.

"Hey Ratch'? Would you have a problem with me asking questions about your biology?"

Ratchet turned me, mirth in his optics. "I have no problem at all, your curiosity makes me happy in all honesty."

I blinked owlishly. "Happy?"

Ratchet shook his head. "_Yes_. Although, you might wish to watch who you ask what questions." His optics turned to the twins. "Us older bots won't find it as… embarrassing."

I snorted with stifled laughter at the deer in headlights looks on Sides and Sunstreaker faces, no doubt realising they could have been a target of my questions. Although I had no desire to ask them the questions to begin with, Ratchet was the one I'd had in mind—hence why I'd asked him.

"But anyway, back to the topic at servo." Ratchet shifted. "While your signal is weak enough to be hidden by ours for a while at most, it may eventually become too strong which is why I'm bringing this discussion up."

"I'm all good with this." I nodded. "Especially with my line of work."

* * *

Soma failed to fight off the yawn that escaped as he stretched, his spine popping at the motion. He groaned at the feelings but cracked his fingers next as he continued to scan surveillance of the MECH base he'd discovered. Unfortunately, it wasn't one of the main bases, just a storage warehouse but it was just as good. If they shut this one down, they'd be losing the contents of whatever was inside the facility.

Brown orbs flickered to the notice that popped up in the right corner informing Soma that he'd received an email.

Capricorn, AKA Michel.

Soma grinned, opening his emails—he had to see this.

Michel never emailed unless it was with information, so this had to be good news, or bad, depending on what it could mean. The email opened and Soma's eyes flickered back and forth across the screen as he read. His smile slowly drooping as he continued to read.

_I managed to get a hold of two locations that MECH are targeting, but not the third._

_Mexico for the fusion cannon blueprints. Japan for sonic laser blueprints. 21st._

_Third unknown, not high enough clearance but it seems important enough to keep from prying ears?_

Soma's breath hitched as he stood, his chair rolling backwards as he quickly opened the email with his tablet, rushing out of his room. He had to tell Logan. Now.

* * *

After the mini-meeting with Ratchet, I'd bumped onto Eden on the way to the kitchen, to which he asked me to spare with him. Of course, I'd said yes, I had to get my mind off the fact Sideswipe had asked about Adan somehow—even for the shortest time.

I rolled my shoulders as I removed my shirt, Eden did the same.

Since I'd done my morning routine, I didn't need to bother with any sort of real warm up, just did some shoulder and ankle rolls.

Eden did slightly more but it seemed he'd done his own morning routine too. He joined me on the mat, cracking his neck.

I twitched as I heard Logan approaching with the Autobots. I pursed my lips as I managed to catch a part of their conversation.

"—_How comes Zelda heals a lot faster than you guys?" _Ironhide asked curiously. I'd obviously missed part of the conversation.

There's a short pause before Logan spoke._ "Ratchet is already aware, but Zelda is… well, she has these enhancements. Because of them her body can take more and heal quicker. It's a lot more complicated than that but that's the jist of it."_

Ratchet made a sound of agreement.

"_But I'd rather not give any more details. It's for Zelda to share herself." _Logan stated. I was thankful._ "I'm sure she'll tell you in time, I mean you managed to gain her trust in the short time you've known her. I was amazed by that, considering—" _He cut himself off from saying anything else, likely because he knew I would be able to hear him.

But he was right, I _did_ trust them. I'd trusted them a lot quicker than others.

(I shouldn't though, and they should _not_ be trusting me. But I trusted them either way, stupidly enough—I just can't not.)

It was strange, I'd known my sister and the others all my life but after _Sigma_, it took me time to open up with Aria once more, to tell her everything they'd done and made me do.

I exhaled.

"_Considering?" _Sunstreaker echoed. I could picture him raising his holoform's brow.

"_Considering everything she's gone through. As I said, in time Zelda might willingly give the details up, but until then just try not to push her." _Logan murmured. _"Last person that tried to do that got a broken sternum, we stopped her from doing worst."_

I pursed my lips at the topic, it wasn't something I wanted to think about, let alone speak of. Everything in the D.A.A, and related, referred to it as _Sigma_ both formally and non-formally because that had been one of my designated names during that period.

"Zelda." I glanced at Eden and saw his own gaze on me with a silent question in them.

"M'fine."

He nodded.

I let out a deep breath, I wasn't that person—not anymore. I shook my head, letting out another deep breath as I decided to distract myself a little longer by doing some more stretches while I waited for Logan, Aria and the Autobot's holoforms to arrive.

But still, telling Sideswipe and Sunstreaker or Ratchet didn't seem too out of this world of me. While I trust Optimus, Ironhide, and Jazz too, I'd not had enough interaction with them yet. But I'm sure that will change in the future.

Aria was last to arrive, carrying a notepad and pen. I greeted her by quickly running over and pecking her cheek. I murmured a quiet sorry to which she bumped her forehead against mine.

_It's fine, _was silently said. I smiled in relief.

"Alright, it's up to you guys how far you take this." Logan voiced, crossing his arms. Eden and I looked to one another, agreeing without the need for words. We knew each other's limits.

"You know the basics, no injuries that could put someone out of commission, etcetera." Logan started again, we gazed back to him. "Loser will state mercy when beaten."

We nodded.

Eden and I got in place, a nice distance between us. Logan counted down, we circled around, I lightly dragged my feet as I did, tensing my muscles and loosening them as I acutely watched Eden as he did me.

"Aw come on, guys!" Mia whined after we spent a full minute doing that. She was baiting us, and we all knew it, but that was just how Mia worked. "You're just gonna keep circling or what?"

It was a split-second decision for both of us, we moved forward in unison. I feinted left, then right before actually going left. It got Eden, I used the opening to harshly jab into his side, spinning to knee his back.

Eden stumbled from the attack but quickly got his balance, turning to face me. He was swift with his assault, going for a straight-on attack. My breath hitched as I barely managed to back away in time to avoid a fist to the stomach, but he advanced, using my stumble to land a punch.

I hissed sharply as I caught his third punch before he could get me again, tugging him forwards roughly, using that opening to land my own punch. Grabbing his trousers at his hips, with a strong tug, I flip him over my shoulder; he hit the ground jarringly.

He rolled from his back to his front, I used the opening as he lifted himself to kick his torso. It was a dirty trick, but everything counted. He hissed out a cry, falling to his side; quickly rolling away from me several times to swiftly get to his feet. I backed away while standing on the ball of my feet.

As he stumbled to find balanced, I ran at him. I watched Eden's eyes widened as I leapt into the air and double kicked him on the chest, he went flying backwards. I hit the ground but flipped myself to my feet, pausing to catch my breath.

I ignored as the Autobots lowly spoke to each other with curiosity in their tones.

Eden came at me; I moved my head in time to miss getting punched. I backed away as he continued with a series of punches, barely missing by a hair width, I even felt his knuckle scrap against my cheek. I find myself stumbling again, he used that to kick my feet out. I grunted as I hit the mat, I yelped as he grabbed my hair and forcibly tugged me up.

The next moment I found my back against his chest, his arms around my armpits and hands linked behind my neck, locking my arms in an awkward angle above me, I grunted and hissed wordlessly as I tried to use my feet to kick out but as I do that, my fingers brush against Eden's wild hair and I smirked.

My fingers sunk into the strands and pull. Harshly, so harshly I'm sure I pulled some out. Whoops. It worked though, Eden cried out a _"Fuck!"_ at the unexpected attack, his lock slacking just enough for me to slip out. I used this to my advantage and head-butted his nose.

As he stumbled backwards, clutching his nose, I kicked his feet from under him as he'd done to me. He hit the floor, I kicked his side again and he rolled onto his front. I dropped down, wrapping my right arm around his neck and pulled him backwards, a knee just right of his spine. I heard it crack at the angle.

Eden tried to get out but unlike me, he couldn't reach any part of me that would be enough to get me to let go. He goes still before hitting the mat. "Mercy."

I released him; he groaned as I stand. I grimaced as Eden rolled onto his back, his own grimace on his face.

"Sorry." I held out a hand and Eden grasped it so I could pull him up. "Sometimes I forget my own strength."

Eden waved me off as he rubbed his back. "S'fine." I laugh as Eden groaned. "Fuck, I forgot about that power hold of yours."

I snorted out a short laugh and abandoned the mat to walk to Sunstreaker, who had picked up my shirt. I smiled in thanks as I tugged it back on. Doing the same for my socks and shoes, hopping on one foot to do so.

It got Sides laughing as I stumbled about; I yelped, nearing falling and Sunstreaker offered me an arm to hold while I put my other one on. I grinned sheepishly.

"Thanks."

Sunstreaker rolled his optics.

Soma chose that moment to come rushing, the grim look his face said it was serious. All amusement was gone from my face as the atmosphere in the room became tense. "Logan."

"Soma?" Logan questioned.

"We've got a bit of a problem."

* * *

"Two locations means two each for the teams." Logan murmured. "Mia and I'll take Mexico. You and Zelda be up for Tokyo?"

Eden nodded. "Yeah. Takes eleven hours give or take, we leave tomorrow morning, we can be there by late tomorrow night. It'd give us enough time for Soma to phone ahead and let us set something up."

Logan pulled out the Tokyo facility's blueprint out, laying it out on the lightbox table. "The only few weaknesses on the sheet is the front door, which would be too obvious or the sewer system. It'll lead them right into the building, unfortunately."

"Why do these buildings have such stupid openings?" Eden groaned.

"It's an escape route but those tend to work both ways in cases of emergency." The blond man male offered, raising both hands in an 'I surrender' pose. Eden rolled his eyes.


	4. Failure and Revelations

**Seven more chapters before Bout begins**

* * *

**Chapter 4**: Failure and Revelations

I zipped up my boots and stood, grabbing the pack beside my feet and swing it onto my right shoulder. Re-entering the room, I made my way to Eden, who held his hand out to take my pack; I pass it to him. He ran off toward our plane to start it up.

Ratchet's holoform appearing next to me was startling, but he held out a chain with a piece of metal. "It's the best I could do in such a short time, I'll improve upon it later but for now it will do the job."

It was a simple rectangle that looked a lot like a motherboard with all the wires and pieces. It was tiny too, how had Ratchet managed to make something so small? I shook the thought off and pluck the chain from his holoform's hand, clasping it around my neck. I shove the chain and device under my suit collar before doing it up again.

"Thanks." I answered, smiling thankfully.

Ratchet dipped his chin. "Your safety will always be important, youngling."

I hesitated on the action but hugged him. Ratchet hummed softly, his own arms wrapping around my shoulders.

"Do be careful while out there. I know Aria will be most annoyed, and I can say we Autobots will be also if you come back harmed." Ratchet admonished.

I hid my grin in his shoulder before forcing a neutral but warm expression as I pulled back from the hug. "I'll try, but no promises, Ratchet."

He just sighed heavily.

"Sunbird." Aria entered and loped over quickly. She glanced at Ratchet before returning her gaze to me. "Ratchet has most likely already told you, but be careful."

I smiled, biting back a snort. "He has."

Aria rolled her eyes.

* * *

I leant back against the wall, watching over the sewer drain that Taurus and I would most likely be using to intersect MECH. Eden was watching from the other side of the building—the front entrance, just in case MECH was stupid enough to go in that way. It was doubtful, but still a stupid possibility.

I crossed my arms, peering through the shadows that hid my form to scan the building. It was large, white, and had plenty of windows, it looked like a sterile place—like the technology-science lab it was.

I exhaled through my nose and shifted my weight. =Any changes?=

Virgo hummed. I'm doing a scan of the sewer now, give me a tick.= He gave a strangled noise and I straightened.

=Virgo?=

=They're in the sewers. How'd I fucking miss that?!=

=Doesn't matter.= Taurus interrupted before he could continue. =Scorpio, I'll be at your location in a few seconds. Get ready.=

I pushed off the wall, moving for the manhole. I crouched before it and slipped my fingers into the holes. With little effort, I pulled it from its snug resting place and pushed it aside just as Taurus came around the corner.

"Me first, you second." Taurus ordered and lowered his night vision goggles. I followed his actions and slipped my own on as well as my faceguard.

Taurus climbed down the ladder and I waited until he was on the ground before climbing down myself, listening to see if we could hear the MECH soldiers.

I scrunched my nose at the smell—we were going to need to shower after this. I was affected by the smell worse than Taurus because of my enhancements; I bit back the gag that wanted to escape. It smelt disgusting. Especially since we were walking through it.

But I forced myself to push the smell aside and focus onward. Because we had our night vision goggles, we didn't have a need for torches and so we could continue without alerting the MECH soldiers that were ahead of our presence.

Pulling my Glock out, I waited for Taurus to peer around the corner. Four fingers went up and I nodded.

We rounded the corner and fired at them. All four went down and we peered up into the building.

All employees have been notified and are hiding in secure locations in the building. Virgo commented.

=Good. We don't have the worry about hostages then.= I nodded and we climbed up into the abandoned building. It was eerily silent except for the buzzing of the bright overhead lights. Creepy.

=Which way now?=

=Gotta go down two flights.= Virgo answered. =I'll be back in a moment, Pisces and Libra need my attention.=

Taurus and I shared a look as we pushed our goggles up. I moved first, peering down the stairs. I fired two shots at the MECH that were stood on them. I rushed down and fired off another three, two more went down. I pressed up against the wall, sneaking a look and drawing back before I could get shot.

I let out a breath and swung around the corner and shot the last two in the room. I hit one in the shoulder for the purpose of interrogation. Taurus approached him and kicked his gun away before he would scramble for it. Taurus pressed his foot on the underling's injured shoulder.

"How many more of you are there?" He demanded.

"Fuck you." The underling spat.

Taurus pressed more of his weight onto him and tilted his head. "Scorpio?"

I grinned and purred: "My pleasure."

His screams were like music to my ears.

* * *

We moved along shortly after I'd gotten our answer from the underling. There were twelve more left from the original twenty.

I kicked the door down, expecting there to be the remaining twelve but I lowered my gun and hissed. The vault was ransacked, there was a hole in the floor and there weren't any MECH soldiers around. We were too late.

"Damnit." Taurus kicked the empty box by his feet.

I shoved my Glock back into its holster and stepped into the vault, my insides sizzling with anger. "We just missed them." I hissed, noticing they'd left all their equipment—most weren't even turned off. No doubt they'd heard us coming and didn't bother with it.

=Virgo, this is Taurus. We were too late in arriving at the vault.= Taurus reported.

Virgo exhaled heavily. =Understood. I'll forward it onto Libra.=

I stepped out of the vault and pulled my faceguard off to running my gloved flesh hand down my face in frustration. Even after all our preparation, they'd somehow gotten past Virgo's radar and made it inside. How?

I frowned and turned back to the vault, there was a bunch of hard drives and paper blueprints scattered all around the room. It was plain to see they'd been in a hurry and just chucked things over their shoulders when it wasn't what they were looking for.

I crouched and plucked a drive from the ground. I sighed, I was damaged; I peered at the others all laying around—several of them had damage in fact. The paper blueprints looked ruffled but thankfully not ripped.

Hopefully, they weren't damaged to the of point of being unusable. It was unlikely they had spares if they were being kept in a vault to begin with.

=Libra's been informed, but you guys gotta head on up, there will be police arriving shortly.= Virgo reported.

I nodded mutely even though Virgo wouldn't be able to see it and stood once more, silently following Taurus. I pulled my faceguard back on as did Taurus; our identities were meant to be kept a secret after all.

Taurus did the talking to the officers—speaking their native tongue as it was easier than speaking English—telling them about the dead and their locations. Once he'd filled them in, we headed for our bikes to get back to the plane. There was a shower on board so we could have a short one to get rid of most of the smell before arriving back home.

It was frustrating and I wanted to have a go at a punching bag to relieve my anger but unfortunately, there wasn't one on the plane to use. So instead, I had to settle with calming myself down naturally instead of beating it out of myself.

Once we were safely in the air, I claimed the shower first. I changed into cargo pants and a vest after. I switched places with Eden to let him take his own. There was little conversation between us during the entire ten-hour flight. Both of us still stewing at the fact they'd gotten away.

Might as well start my report write up.

* * *

Ten hours passed quickly and we arrived back home in what felt like only a few hours instead. It was very early morning, the sun hadn't even appeared yet, and I wanted nothing more than to just go to bed but I still felt dirty and wanted another _far_ longer shower.

I turned my bike on and rode it out, Eden just behind me. The door opened just enough for us to ride in before it closed again.

It was surprising to see the Autobots awake but I didn't know their sleep—uh, recharge patterns yet. It was likely they didn't need to sleep as much as humans did.

I pulled to a stop and climbed off, pulling my helmet off as I didn't bother fighting the yawn. I just dumped my helmet on the bench, waved to the bots and made for my room.

The second shower did wonders but I didn't stop yawning the entire time. Damn, I actually wanted to sleep.

As I came out, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were already in my room. I was mildly surprised but mostly just too tired to really compute the emotion. I greeted with a sleepy: "Hey."

Sides grinned. "Hey to you too, we know that you'll be heading to bed but we were wondering how everything went?"

I grimaced. "We didn't manage to stop them."

Sunstreaker frowned as Side's grin eased of his face. "They managed to get away?"

I nodded. "They passed Soma's notice somehow, we think they came up in the main building as a distraction and drilled up at the vault itself to give them more time since there was a hole in the room when we arrived."

I rubbed my eyes and sighed again, I dropped onto the settee and groaned, instantly regretting what I just did. "Fuck, I shouldn't have sat down."

Sides chuckled softly and sat down beside me. "Why's that?"

"I'm not gonna be able to move." I hummed, eyes closed. I felt the settee compress the other side of me so I guess Sunstreaker sat down too. "I'm so _damn_ tired and I have no idea why."

"You always have those purple circles under your eyes." Sunstreaker commented, voice strangely quiet and soft. "Isn't that usually a sign that a human doesn't sleep enough?"

I laughed breathlessly. I peered up at him sheepishly. "You got me; guilty as charged."

Sides slumped against me, head resting against mine. It startled me enough to jerk lightly but Sides just snuggled closer.

"What are you doing?" I projected my amusement.

"I happen to be tired also." He chimed. "If you're not going to move, I can just use you as a pillow."

I rested my cheek against his scalp in response. I didn't comment further, just closed my eyes and allowed myself to succumb to sleep.

* * *

"She's asleep already." Sunstreaker murmured; relieved. The supposed 'reason' of asking how her mission went was not the _actual_ reason they'd followed Zelda into her room. Zelda's sleep pattern was all over the place—with so few humans in the building, they could easily keep track of each's patterns.

Mia went to bed early most evenings and got up between six and eight when morning came around. Eden was similar, some nights he went later, however. Soma was all over the place—he stayed up to odd hours in the early Earth solar-cycle before sleeping until six or seven in the morning. Logan and Aria shared a room, Aria went first, then Logan not long after—typically he read a book before joining Aria. They both awoke at a similar time of seven each morning.

Zelda was always first up, ranging from three to five in the morning and she normally went to bed at around elevenish.

(Ratchet grumbled at a few of the human's schedules but didn't make a fuss about it because of their work. Soma was the worst but he went out of his way to catch up during the day with power naps if possible.)

But they were mostly worried about Zelda, because while their bonds with her were still developing, they could feel her waking up was never peaceful. It was always sharp; like she'd experienced a chargefright but didn't remember them.

They didn't doubt that was the reason, Ratchet may nor may not have been monitoring her processor—_brain_—activity during her recharge. It showed she often dreamt and it wasn't pleasant for her—their only relief was that she didn't seem to remember it. At least not all the time—the night at the Witwicky's house came to them.

Her agonised and anguished cry, her mind forcing her to see someone else in Bee's place when he'd rushed into the room was terrifying for them to witness and _feel_.

They'd all seen their fair share of horrors and Bumblebee suffered from chargefights too sometimes—_they_ had also, and while it didn't happen often, it still didn't mean it wasn't terrifying when it did.

They just wanted Zelda to rest easily.

* * *

_They stood still and at attention. Silas stormed into the room, glaring at all five of them._

"_Who did it?" He ordered in Russian. None said anything._

_Sigma stared straight ahead, stiff and expression blank._

"_I SAID WHO DID IT!" Silas roared continuing in the language. "Which one of you killed 92?"_

_Still, no one said anything._

"_Then you'll all be punished!"_

* * *

Zelda stirred in her sleep, a quiet strangled noise escaped. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe shared a look. Sideswipe pushed himself upright but didn't go far, his holo's hand still holding Zelda's arm. Sunstreaker gently set his own servo—_hand_, on Zelda's shoulder.

* * *

_Sigma stood silent, watching as the other four bickered between themselves._

"_I certainly didn't do it." 101 snapped in response to 95; the two men near snarling at each other._

_104 turned her gaze onto Sigma. "Well, what about _you,_ 84? You're the only original non-MECH solider."_

_Sigma blinked, head turning slowly to return the gaze. "What do I get from killing one of you? I serve only MECH."_

_100 scoffed. "You get a lot from it."_

_Sigma tilted her head. "What about you all? Maybe whoever did it is aiming to be number one in Silas's book?"_

_They all turned to each other, Sigma's words setting them on edge._

* * *

Zelda shifted, brows furrowing deeply.

"Zelda?" Sides called softly, shaking her shoulder in an attempt to wake her but it was for nought.

* * *

_The water raining from the showerhead hid the sound of Sigma removing the vent cover. She slowly climbed from it and stood, she tilted her head as she straight at the curtain hiding 104._

_She slowly walked, her movements like that of a predator stalking prey. In her hand was a screwdriver, it was clasped tightly in Sigma's metal fist that the handle threatened to break._

_Sigma reached out for the curtain and—_

_The sheet was ripped back, 104 jerking in surprise, only having mere seconds to turn, eyes wide before the screwdriver was thrust into her throat. 104 gurgled and Sigma shoved her against the wall, not caring about the water now raining down on her face._

_Sigma blinked and the smile she wore promised death. Simple as._

"_Guess you were right after all." She purred and ripped the screwdriver of, pulling a chunk of her throat with it. 104 grabbed her throat in a desperate attempt to save herself but—_

_Well, it was pointless because Sigma shoved the screwdriver into her eye socket and into her brain. 104 fell dead and Sigma smiled softly, she turned and hummed a merry tune as she climbed back into the vent and back to her room._

* * *

Zelda's torso pitching forward as she woke startled them but the strangled squeal that escaped kicked them back into action. Sideswipe pulled her onto his lap, even as she fought against him and began to project _safe-calm-protected_ to her.

Zelda just continued to cry, body trembling and Sunstreaker slipped behind her, arms wrapping around her waist and pressed his chest against her back to box her in between himself and Sideswipe. He projected a similar feeling down the bond and slowly the sobs petered off but the shaking didn't.

"It's okay, Zelda." Sunstreaker murmured into her ear. "Just breathe."

She took a shaky breath, her trembling almost hiding the action.

"That's it." Sideswipe hummed softly, projecting his _proud-at ease-relaxed_ to her.

Another soft and strangled noise escaped her, Zelda likely having tried to speak but the words got stuck in her throat. Sunstreaker nuzzled his nose into her shoulder.

"Thank you." She breathed, finally finding her voice. "Sides, Sunstreaker, thank you _so_ much."

"Of course." Sides resting his cheek against her forehead.

Sunstreaker hummed, chin on Zelda's shoulder and he hesitated for a moment but then spoke: "Just call me Sunny."

The golden-yellow twin was aware of the shock that came from his brother, but it came with _happy-proud-amused_ also.

Zelda shifted, peering over her shoulder at Sunstreaker with her own shock. "A-are you sure, I thought you didn't—"

"For you, it's fine. Okay?" Sunstreaker smiled. "Now recharge, Sides and I aren't going anywhere. If anything happens, we'll wake you up right away."

Zelda nodded and buried her face into Sideswipe's shoulder and slowly but surely succumbed to her tiredness once more.

* * *

"I'm glad to hear, Keller." Logan nodded sharply. "Have the soldiers been given the chance to return to their families?"

Keller nodded and smiled in return. "Yes, we all felt it only fair and just that they reunite with their loved ones before anything else."

"I would also like to discuss more about this collaboration but feel that perhaps it would be better in person? Bringing the Autobots along with us to introduce them all properly would be the best course of action as well."

"All of them?" Keller questioned curiously. The Secretary of Defence was eager to formally meet the entire group of Autobots now taking shelter on Earth.

"All of them." Logan confirmed.

"Then I will invite the group of soldiers also. It would only be appropriate to involve them in something just as big. The twenty-sixth, alright?" Keller offered.

Logan pondered on the date for a moment. He'd need to take Soma with him, he was the one that was drafting everything—the Asian was fussy about notes and ideas; it would be best to take him in case he had an idea during the meeting.

"Twenty-sixth it is." Logan smiled.

* * *

"You… you asked about Adan the other day." Zelda started suddenly later that day, once she'd awoken from her more peaceful sleep, but she'd been quiet and withdrawn since.

Sideswipe turned toward her from the kitchen stall having been reading a book he'd found and Sunstreaker paused mid brush (he'd asked about brushing and styling her hair weirdly enough).

"You don't have to tell us about him if it makes you uncomfortable." Sunstreaker offered lightly.

Zelda swallowed and admitted: "I… I think I need to talk about him more then tell you anything really."

"Then tell us about him." Sideswipe smiled softly at her. "What was he like?"

Zelda snorted fondly. "He was… he was a bit of a goofball, especially when one of us said some that he could make a comeback to. I once commented on seeing a shark while visiting Egypt. He turned to me and said something along the lines of: 'what? Didn't you know that Israeli have been training sharks to spy on us for years?'"

Sideswipe snickered and Sunstreaker chuckled. Zelda grinned, the grin fading into a soft smile. "He was my best friend before he was my boyfriend but when we first met at four, we hated each other's guts. We were both trying to be the best that it turned into a competition, we played dirty and it kinda just became a thing that we'd point out flaws and we'd end up helping each other fix them.

He… Adan was the type of guy that would say f-it and do stupid shit but knew when to be serious. He was actually very quiet and nervous around unfamiliar people I found out when we turned six, we were given a mock mission in a city to get somewhere while avoiding people and stuff like that. He got crowded and I watched him suffer a panic attack. I was surprised because I'd never seen him like that before and…" Zelda titled her head. "And I think it was then that I realised I felt differently towards him than anyone else. I was six and I'd already fallen in love. How stupid does that sound?"

"Pretty stupid." Sideswipe nodded mockingly in agreement but looked curious because he was. He was curious about how Zelda grew up surrounded by her family. He was curious about Adan because, well, from what they had already witnessed, been told by Aria and now Zelda herself, he seemed like a kind person. The ideal person someone dreamed of being, from what they skimmed over during their research of Earth.

So, how did he died?

Sunstreaker finished braiding Zelda's hair and squeezed her shoulder, silently thanking her for sharing. Her hand reached up and grabbed his, squeezing in return.


	5. Hunt

**Hmm, whelp, here the start of the main event for you.**

* * *

**Chapter 5: **Hunt

**The Twenty-Fifth**

"Soma's still watching. So stay alert, got it?" Logan gave a pointed look more aimed toward Mia than anyone else; she grinned.

"Don't worry about it, Logan." Aria smiled lovingly at Logan, brushing his fringe from his eyes. "We'll be alright for three days without you."

"Yeah." Eden bobbed his head and chimed: "We'll keep Mia on a leash if necessary."

Mia looked dramatically horrified. "Excuse you. I happen to be _very_ responsible, thank you very much."

I snorted, hands shoved in my trouser pockets. "Responsible, right."

Mia pouted in my direction; she sniffled. "Why am I always the punching bag?"

"Because you're easy to make fun off?" Soma smirked. Snickers followed.

I wandered over to the bots' holoforms. "Try not to scare anyone too bad and if you do, make sure you get it on camera for me?" I grinned.

Jazz snickered. "Ah wouldn't dream of anythin' else, lil' one."

"We'll make it spectacular if we do." Sideswipe nodded in agreement. Sunny hummed musingly, I didn't doubt he was planning something, especially by the way Side glanced at him, grin widening.

Ratchet sighed. "Please don't."

Ironhide smirked. "Where's the harm in giving the humans a playful scare?"

The twins grinned as 'Hide agreement.

Optimus just watched on silently, face stern but I had felt a flash of fond amusement. It only increased as Ratchet and Ironhide began bickering back and forth.

"Any plans while we're gone?" Sides piped up. "I know you'll miss us greatly and be sad by our short departure, but it'll be okay, Zel."

I snorted. "Miss you?" I raised a brow. "Whatever gave you _that_ idea."

Jazz laughed, leaning back on his body.

Sideswipe's eyes widened comically. "Is that your way of saying that you don't like us?"

"Well." I paused dramatically. "It's more _you_ then an _us_, Sides. There's something about you that I just can't—" I gave a faux grimace. Jazz slid down to the ground, wheezing. He was rather red in the face. The others all watched on with amusement written clearly on their faces.

Sides's gapped. "Me?!" He squawked.

I nodded grimly. "Pity because I like Sunny."

Sunny snickered as Sides fell to his knees, looking horrified. The nickname got me a few surprised looks from the others but I didn't really pay it much attention. I turned to Sunny, fluttering my lashes. "When you get back, come find me."

Playing along, Sunny wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me close. "You could come with us, daring Zelda."

I sighed heavily, leaning into his side. "But alas, I can't. If only I could."

"Okay, okay, okay." Sideswipe got to his feet, fake sniffling. "I see how it is."

I grinned and reached out with my own hand, pulling him into the hug by his sleeve. He chuckled, placing a kiss on my browbone.

* * *

I let out a dramatic exhale, preparing myself to read the card. "I gotta prepare for this one, hold on." I stretched and cleared my throat. Then I slammed my palm onto the table. "DAMN IT, MOTHER. I—it's, this is the fifth time I told you: blank."

"All that prep and you stilled fucked it up." Eden grinned as Mia and Aria snickered.

"Shut up cunt." I kicked his ankle before clasping my hands together and rubbing them eagerly. "What you kids got for me."

"Ah fuck, I've got to disconnect." Mia groaned and did so, just as the cards popped up.

"Wait your card's on screen, when you left, it fixed it." I commented.

"Back now, anyway." Mia shrugged.

I wheezed with laughter when Mia's account name failed to appear. "What's happening?"

"I dunno but I've got three cards on my screen." Aria chimed in, peering down at her tablet instead of the TV

"Wait is Mia back in?" Eden frowned, eyeing the tv in confusion.

Aria shrugged. "Apparently. I don't see her either."

"Well I don't see her, this is gonna be confusing." I turned to Mia. "Which card is yours? I wanna see what happens."

"My one's the Donald Trump and Mexicans."

"I bloody knew it." Aria snorted, leaning back in her chair.

I then tried to pick Mia's card only to get an error message, which just prompted laughter out of us. We ended up refreshing the page and thankfully it pulled Mia back in.

I cleared my throat as while Mia had been pulled back in, her card had disappeared. "Guess it's just between the other two. DAMN IT, MOTHER. This is the fifth time I told you: running onto a porn set while an orgy is being filmed, dripping with gasoline and lube, and yelling 'who wants to get fuckay?' is not—" I broke into wheezy laughter. "_I almost filled that in with 'is not okay'!_"

"I was hoping it said that—wait, _fuck_." Eden cursed and it just set off more laughter.

An entire game was played with Eden coming out as the winner. However as we went to start up a second game, laughing uncontrollably, the power cut off. We all paused, all traces of the laughter moments before completely gone, we sat in the darkness that now encased the room for several long moments.

We waited for the power to come back on but it didn't.

"Back-up generators aren't coming on." Mia whispered.

We set our tablets down and stood. We all eyed the room. Eden turned to us "Mia, you and I are gonna head to check the generators. Aria, Zelda get to Soma's room. Once the power is back on, we'll meet in the docking bay."

I frowned but nodded, I grabbed Aria's wrist and we rushed off. My chest twisted in nervousness because our systems were very delicate. We had a backup generator that comes on if it's just a normal power cut—but we were on a personal powerline, we mostly generated our own electricity which is why a power cut in the first place wasn't normal and the secondary comes on only when it's naturally caused.

That would only mean one thing: someone had purposely cut the power.

I released Aria's wrist as we turned down a small hallway and opened the door to Soma's workroom. I moved up to the computer, hitting a key and Soma's computer lit up. I narrowed my eyes, peering over my shoulder as Aria closed the door.

"Soma's power is still on." I confirmed and logged in, I sat in his chair and worked on pulling up the security footage.

I went for outside first and immediately I knew who it was.

"MECH." I hissed. Aria was at my side in seconds.

=Eden, do you copy?=

=I copy.= Eden answered.

=It's MECH, they managed to cut the main power, not knowing about our secondary situation.= I reported. I heard him swear.

=Okay, okay. Stay there and try and find where they're coming from and going.= Eden ordered.

=Understood.=

I pulled all cameras up and we began to search through them. =There's some heading our way, Eden.=

=Stay in that room, Zelda.=

=But—=

=Stay, and get a damn SOS out to Soma.=

I hissed and stood, pushing Aria into the chair instead. "Do it." I moved to the cabinet at the back of the room. I pressed my thumb and the light turned green, I pulled the doors open. Inside was an expandable shield, unfortunately, there wasn't a gun. Damnit.

I strapped it onto my left arm; flicking my arm in a certain way, the shield expanded. It was enough to cover shoulder to shoulder and down to the knees and up to the head. I moved my arm again and it retracted.

"I've sent it." Aria murmured and returned to the cameras. "We've got three incomings in roughly thirty seconds."

"Get behind the door." I ordered and opened the shield. I readied myself and relaxed my breathing, feeling my heart pounding. Then—

_BAM_

—the door was kicked open. I rushed the underling that had kicked the door, using the shield to deflect the bullets and sending him to the ground unconscious by smashing his head against the wall because he hadn't been wearing headgear to protect him.

I retracted the shield and took the second one, hitting his solar plexus. He gasped for breath and I used that to attack the third. A harsh punch to the nose took her down but the second, already recovered chucked something and it landed on my right arm.

It sparked and suddenly the arm was dead weight—EMP.

I quickly kicked the guy below the belt, watching as he goes down as I pried the disk from my arm. Power came back and I wiggled my fingers then rotated my arm. I snarled and launched myself at the man, metal fingers wrapping around his neck.

I held, watching as he fought and scratched at my metal arm in an attempt to free himself but I just tightened and felt the way I crushed his throat.

He'd be dead in three minutes.

I turned my attention onto the third as she climbed to her feet. I booted her in the chest and listened as her ribs collapsed. She hit the ground gaping like a fish. She'd be dead soon too.

I simply snapped the first's neck while he was still unconscious before I could even think of doing something worse like I desperately wanted too.

Aria appeared in the doorway, eyeing the corpses momentarily. "You okay?"

"Fine." I answered shortly, peering down the hallway.

=Eden?= I got no answer. =Mia?=

Still no answer. I locked eyes onto Aria and she tried to get a hold of them and Logan and Soma also; nothing.

"Our comms are busted?" I frowned and Aria helped me to my feet, albeit I stumbled slightly to rebalance myself. We returned into Soma's room only to see his power had gone too.

"I understand the small EMP, but one strong enough to shut all power down in the building?" Aria frowned. "That's not easy tech to get a hold of."

"Stolen technology you mean." I picked the EMP they used on my arm. It was small circular disk no bigger than a British two-pound coin.

"We can't stay here." I peered into the hallway again.

"Eden said to stay." Aria frowned; it was an order, after all.

"But our comms are down and we didn't figure out how many there were. We've got to get some weapons, Aria."

She sighed heavily but nodded. "Okay, let's go."

I nodded and we rushed from the room, ignoring the concern and panic coming from the threads—I needed to focus.

I only hoped they'd turned around already, they'd only been gone an _hour_.

We crossed paths with only a few M.E.C.H soldiers, which we took care of quickly.

I frowned—I was expecting _more_. At this rate, we'd have killed them all off. I only hope Eden and Mia were okay and that they didn't get jumped.

There was something that just frustrated me, however—like I was missing something incredibly important and I bit back the groan that wanted to escape.

"Zelda." Aria's hushed voice brought me back and I turned towards her. She jerked her head towards the bay doors.

My heart fluttered nervously, hoping both Mia and Eden were there.

We approached and Aria softly pushed the handle down and opened the door. Our eyes widened when immediately our sights landed on the two familiar forms sprawled out in the centre of the room.

We cried out their names and rushed forward. "Eden!" "Mia!"

I dropped next to Eden, searching for a pulse. It slow but there was a steady beat. I searched for an injury but thankfully it seemed he'd only taken a blow to the head.

I turned to Aria, her face had gone pale. "Aria?" My voice cracked.

She turned to me, eyes watering and shook her head. A strangled noise escaped. "M-Mia." I crawled closer, she'd been shot in the stomach and the location left her bleeding out rapidly. I touched the back of her hand, she was still warm. Too warm, she couldn't have been dead for more than a few minutes.

I snarled and grabbed Aria's shoulder, her own grabbed mine in return. I squeezed closed my eyes,_ forgive us, Mia. I hope you find peace in whatever happens after death._

Someone slow clapped and I felt breathless as the person laughed. My grip tightened as a burst of familiar and pure anger set ablaze inside. A wildfire that had been burning for years was suddenly uncontrollable and spreading threw my veins without restraint.

My gritted my teeth and pushed myself to my feet, turning to face the man.

Silas smiled. "Hello again, Sigma. How have you been these last few years?"

Aria snarled and stood, slipping in front of me. "Don't come any closer, you bastard."

"Oh?" Silas eyed Aria and I sneered at him. "You must be the sister. You know Sigma would scream for you while we had her strapped down?"

Aria shifted, free hand reaching back to grasp mine in comfort. I squeezed because otherwise, I knew I was going to charge at him.

"What's the fucking purpose of coming here, Silas." I snapped. "Surely you wouldn't just risk an attack on our base for some petty reason."

Silas hummed. "You're right." He pressed a finger to his lips then pointed at me. "You see, I'm here for _you_, Sigma. You've been a very bad test subject; killing the other subjects, then Cooper, then blowing up the lab! Tsk, tsk."

"She's not going anywhere with you, you sick excuse for a human." Aria snapped.

_BANG_

I screamed.

* * *

**Whelp.**

**Cards against humanity scene was inspired by SMii7y on YT. The title of the video is '****_trigger warning – cards against humanity online'_**

**Considering the game, the video does contain a lot of swearing and dark humour and stuff, just as a heads up if you do watch it.**


	6. Torpefy

**So I'm not happy with this but I've been sitting on it for a while now however I can't find a way to improve it.**

**On another note, I've made some changes again, to both Interim and Epoch. Their minor but Zelda already as her cybernetic arm. ****(Eh, spoiler?)**

**Epoch got a new cover, so if you want to know what it looks like, you can look there.**

* * *

**Chapter 6: **Torpefy

My sight narrowed and sounds turned muted, as if underwater.

Aside from the beat of my heart, no muscle would move. The bullet entered as if she was nothing, just meat, blasting a cavity into her forehead. Her face was frozen, eyes open, mouth slack, as she was propelled backwards. Her eyes stared ahead and in those fractions of seconds, she was there and then _gone_.

Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. _Gone_.

She was gone.

Absently I heard Silas's snicker.

Absently I heard the blood rushing in my ears.

Absently I registered the pain in my knees where I drop to them.

Only when the butt of a gun slammed into the side of my head do I refocus.

My sight sharpens, my hearing became clear-cut, and I tensed.

I hurled my fist, propelling myself at him. Silas's eyes widened in surprise and my fist lands in his gut. He gagged, the force behind my punch sending him sprawling with a cry.

My vision centred on him, my right fist flexing with hunger and a lust to wrap it around his throat.

I strut forward, watching as Silas desperately struggled to catch his breath while crawling for his gun.

His hand wraps around it and I stomp on his wrist, feeling the way it cracks under the assault. He roared in agony.

But it was nothing to what he had done to Eden, Mia—_Aria_.

I was going to rip. him. _apart_.

"You wanted Сигма." I drawled, watching with a deep-seated satisfaction as his eyes widened. I knelt and smiled down at him. "Ну так никогда не _уходил_."

I reached down and flexed my fingers against his neck, not yet applying pressure but _more_ than ready. " Я заставлю тебя страдать, Silas." I began tightening, slowly as to drag it out. "Я собираюсь вытащить это, скрутить тебя всеми способами, которые ты сделал со мной. Когда ты будешь просить о пощаде, я продолжу—я покажу тебе, как выглядит безумие."

He gasped, whacking at weakly as the blood vessels in his head began to bulge and his face started to darken.

_BANG_

My body jerked, grip loosening as the pain registered in my leg.

I hissed, but Silas used my momentary distraction to kick me away. I was sent sprawling. I bared my teeth, snarling as I launch myself at him again.

_BANG_

My abdomen, beneath my ribs, missing any organs. All the way through.

I crashed into the ground still snarling and began to crawl towards Silas as he stumbled to his feet, the signs of asphyxiation.

I watched as Silas ran, his form getting blurrier and blurrier the further he ran until he vanished altogether.

I rested my head on the ground, staring ahead as the blank spots ate at my vision.

The last sounds I heard were the squeal of tyres.

* * *

Logan fell from Optimus's cab, his knees almost giving out at just the sight before him—then it _clicked_, pushing him into action and he rushed to Aria, crying out her name.

Soma was at Mia and Eden in a matter of moments after Logan.

Ratchet was beside Zelda with a flicker of his holoform. He turned her over, hands coming to press against the bullet wound on her abdomen.

Logan's anguished cry as he clutched Aria to hit them all but Ratchet was forced to block his screams out and get to work, pulling off the lab coat his holoform wore to press.

There were holoforms surrounding him in seconds, Jazz quickly pulling his own jacket off to press to the wound on her leg, which, to their relief, was nowhere near as serious.

Sunstreaker took over Ratchet's spot as he left to fetch the kit in his vehicle mode. Working quickly with cleaning and putting a stop to the bleeding so that they could transport her to medical for operation.

Optimus was the one rushed approach Soma who sat beside Eden, leaving Logan space as he continued to cry over Aria. He knelt before Mia and wasn't able to find a pulse. He grimaced.

His eyes shifted to Eden, where Soma was staring at him in relief. Unconscious, but alive. Optimus rested a hand on Soma's shoulder. The Asian male blinked slowly as he turned to face Optimus; he looked just lost.

But Logan cried out again, and Soma stood, shrugging off the hand and numbly wandered to Logan. He just sat there silently and never made a move to touch either—just sat.

Optimus's chassis tightened further as he surveyed their surrounds; optics landing on Zelda last and his bots that were knelt around her. She was unhealthily pale but breathing—the bond that linked her to them still burned strong, weaker and numb, but there.

It was a complete mess.

* * *

She knew she was unconscious, but she was awake at the same time.

It wasn't a dream, Zelda knew that, so what was happening?

She choked in realisation; Mia, Eden, _Aria_. She clutched her head, she might not have a body here, but that still didn't mean she couldn't feel the sensation.

She groaned; her thought tangent didn't mean _shit_.

She hissed and stewed in her anger, her grief, and her desire for justice that she had been robbed off.

Zelda paused however when she was hit with the sensation of large hands cupping around her presence. She twitched, unable to stop her shaking even as she tried to control her rage, in response to the being she could practically taste the power of.

"Welcome back, dear All-Spark." The ancient voice from weeks ago spoke again. "Expected you so soon again, I didn't. Fate may be kept in stone, but nothing is truly unbreakable. Your path has turned rough but alone you are not."

Zelda let out a breath.

"Your very soul seeks companionship and those you allow close, you dearly love. To lose not just one, but two is harsh and fearful of what the future may hold. But know, you will never be alone again, with them in physical presence or just spiritually.

"What you do next, some may be unsure about, or they may agree with but know this, dear All-Spark; I am with you, physical body I might no longer have but with you all that same, I am. Your next task will test you, not physically, but mentally. Much have you suffered through, and this will be the closure of that chapter of life, ready for you to finally enter the next."

And Zelda awoke.

* * *

Coming too, Zelda realised quickly that her waking was never this easy or peaceful. It immediately set her on edge. She blinked at the familiar _beep-beep-beep-beep_ and eased up. She was in a hospital, right—_obviously_.

Her mind wandered back to the confrontation and her throat closed up.

She knew she was on morphine when she moved and didn't even feel an ounce of discomfort. Instead, Zelda just blinked up at the ceiling.

She was sure she should feel something. Anger, loss, or something but she felt numb, indifferent, _apathetic_ to everything around her.

* * *

She'd not spoke a word since she'd woke up hours prior, even when Ratchet had entered to inquire about how she was feeling.

She felt nothing and that—_that_ should scare her—she was regressing, and regressing _fast_. It wasn't good, at least logically she knew that, but all the same, she didn't _care_.

Ratchet didn't push her to speak.

Zelda was thankful because she was busy planning how to murder Silas.

* * *

"Zelda, my dear." At Judy's voice, Zelda stepped away from Bee's hug to meet her aunt. Judy's red and puffy eyes were obvious, she hadn't even bothered with make-up.

Judy pulled Zelda into a tight hug. She just held her close and slowly Zelda returned it, burying her face into Judy's neck.

Ron and Sam approached, Mikaela a few steps back, shifting hesitantly.

"Hi." Zelda greeted, and she didn't even try to withhold the Russian accent anymore.

Sam blinked, fighting tears and he pulled her into a hug of his own. Zelda wondered if Sam thought she might vanish too. Her lips twitched at the thought.

Ron squeezed her shoulder tightly and rubbed her arm when she'd pulled away.

Mikaela stepped forward, smiling sadly and offered her own hug.

When Soma appeared in Zelda's eye-line, she excused herself to approach him; her mind set in her ways.

"Soma." She stopped a few feet short.

Soma turned twisted his head to face her. "Yeah?"

"Могу ли я попросить об одолжении?"

Soma's look turned curious.

* * *

Carrying the casket with Logan, Sam, and Ratchet was something Zelda never thought she'd experience. She'd always thought it would be _her_ inside the casket with Aria carrying her.

But it wasn't.

Behind them were Soma, Tanner and Louise (Mia's parents), and Minho (Mia's cousin) carrying Mia.

Then behind _them_ was Michel's casket; his body had been found a day later, left in a ditch by MECH after being discovered. He was being carried by his parents, Mary and Stefan, as well as his two younger brothers Lukas and James.

* * *

That was it, Zelda realised as she watched Aria's casket being covered, this was the end of D.A.A. They couldn't run the program with only four of them. The D.A.A would be shut down, but would be transferred onto the N.E.S.T program instead.

Zelda wondered what she should expect in her future. As both a solider, as the All-Spark, and…

Zelda saluted.

(Still no tears fell.)

* * *

"Follow me?" Zelda murmured to the twins once the crowd began to slowly disperse around the three newly buried caskets.

"Always." Sides hummed quietly.

They followed Zelda as she led them across the graveyard and to a specific headstone.

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe read the engraved writing.

_Adan Robinson._

_Friend, brother, and forever loved_

_Rest in Peace_

Zelda smiled at the headstone. "I used to come here while I was healing. Конечно, there isn't actually a body here, MECH made sure of that but it gave me peace of mind all the same." The smile disappeared and she turned to them. "It is my fault Silas attacked the base. I'm the reason their dead."

"No, it's not." Sunstreaker frowned. "You couldn't have known he was going to—"

"нет." Zelda cut him off. "Not… not like that. I mean, he came looking for me personally." She laughed bitterly. "When I was sixteen, Adan and I were given a mission to take someone from MECH out. We did but… but we didn't getaway. We ended up being used as испытуемые by Silas's pet scientist. He was trying to create some serum to enhance the human body. It was a stupid idea, something from a comic book or a movie but… but he actually did it."

Zelda peered down at the gravestone again. "And here I am, the only remaining subject from the experiment. If I remember correctly, there were eighty-three attempts before me, all of them ended in failure."

The twins exhaled heavily in shock.

"Adan being the eighty-third." She frowned, gaze distant. "I was forced to watch as he deteriorate right in front of my eyes and then, when he was at his weakness, Silas just shot him dead because he wasn't going to survive. So that's why…"

She turned to them, looking them in the eyes as she continued: "That's why I'm going to kill him."

* * *

**Fun fact: Mia wasn't originally going to be killed off with Aria and Michel, but my hands decided against my original plan. Michel never actually appeared in this story alive, but I picture him to be a bit like Jazz in attitude.**

**Сигма – Sigma**

**Ну так никогда не _уходил – _Well, she never_ left._**

**Я заставлю тебя страдать, Silas – I'm going to make you suffer, Silas.**

**Я собираюсь вытащить это, скрутить тебя всеми способами, которые ты сделал со мной. Когда ты будешь просить о пощаде, я продолжу—я покажу тебе, как выглядит безумие. - I'm going to draw it out, twist you in every way you did to me. When have you begging for mercy, I'm going to keep going—I'm going to show you exactly what insanity looks like.**

**Могу ли я попросить об одолжении? – Can I ask a favour?**

**Конечно! – of course/sure**

**Нет – no**

**Испытуемые – test subjects**


	7. Sigma, PT1

**Sorry for the wait, I've had this sitting but my focus has been elsewhere.**

**Both Epoch and Interim have had minor overhauls, mostly to fix plot-related issues and grammar/spelling.**

**Mostly everything after the capture is spoken in Russian, and so i haven't added any actual Russian words in this chapter.**

**[Warning: Brief torture, murder and some other stuff that happens.]**

* * *

**Chapter 7:** **Sigma, part 1**

The tenebrosity of the evening sky was the perfect cover for the two figures riding the black motorbike down the poorly lit deserted industrial street filled with warehouses. The deep but quiet rumble of the bike was enough to not draw the attention of any unwanted people that might have been wandering during the late hours of the night. The duo continued further down until the point where the street lamps became practically non-existent, which is when the driver finally turned off from the road and down an alley shrouded in complete darkness.

There was no headlight from the bike to brighten their surroundings but had there been any onlookers what they wouldn't have known was that the black helmets they bore were in fact filtered with a night vision setting.

The bike was turned off, adequately silencing the industrial suburb. Neither moved for a good long five seconds, the duo using the silence to listen to see if they had drawn any attention.

None.

The passenger swung their leg over and hopped down, revealing the body of a female—they were short in height, slim in weight, and had any had a chance to observe the body, realise that it belonged to that of a sixteen-year-old.

She took several steps back, giving the driver, a male—a boy no older than sixteen either—a chance to kick the stand out and climb off also.

The girl finally reached up and unclipped her helmet tag and pulled it off to reveal a young Zelda, her hair was pulled back into a plait and spun into a bun, effectively keeping it out of the way.

The young Zelda held more plump cheeks—remains of baby fat which was slowly disappearing as she aged. Her entire appearance was the of a younger—average—teenager and nothing like the mature adult she would become.

Zelda let out a quiet breath, setting the helmet on the lidded industrial waste bin. A hand absentmindedly drifted to the strap of the black one-shouldered backpack, letting her fingertips drag along the fabric as she watched the alley opening with an expressionless face.

Behind her, her male companion pulled off his own helmet to reveal short but wavy blond hair, to which he ran a hand through to ruffle it. His blue-grey eyes drifted to Zelda.

"You okay, Ze?"

Zelda's attention, and head, snapped to him. She blinked but nodded. "Fine, Adan, just…" She trailed off, a frown pulling at her brows.

"Just what?" The newly named male questioned.

Zelda shook her head, scratching her cheek. "Nothing."

"…Okay." Adan said slowly because he knew something was bothering her—he'd known her since she was four, he could tell when something was wrong, however, he _knew_ not to push her. Instead, he reached up to the blue-tooth ear-piece. =Virgo, this is Leo.=

_=Virgo responding.=_ Was the instantaneous answer.

=We've arrived, anything look out of place or suspicious?= Zelda questioned.

_=Negative.=_ Virgo reported. _=MECH soldiers are loading atm, no sign of Silas yet. It is possible he's dressed up. It's likely he's suspicious about the fact we'd be here.=_

=Wouldn't be surprised.= Zelda muttered, nose scrunching up as the idea he could be waiting for them had her stomach churning in worry.

Virgo snorted but it was obvious he'd tried to muffle it by the cough that followed.

Zelda then turned abruptly on her spot and headed for the opposite end of the alley, Adan followed wordlessly. They climbed over the wall that separated the warehouses, using the walls to quickly climb onto the twin skinned roof of that building.

Zelda took a few steps, testing to see if the metal would echo her footsteps; barely, if anything. She glanced over her shoulder, nodding to Adan as he followed the flat part of the roof towards the front end.

Zelda released a breath and began her journey across the roof towards the window that would allow her to peer down into the bustling warehouse. She flexed her jaw as she slid the bag from her back, while she hated the fact MECH were able to transport stolen goods, she wasn't here to stop that tonight.

No, she was going to be taking out a certain person. Cain Lupin was his name, a higher up in the MECH organisation and someone Silas trusted enough to be considered his righthand man.

She unzipped the bag and pulled out the case inside. She opened that and began to assemble the APR sniper. It was a modified version to allow Zelda the ability to both put it together and break it down in record time.

=Any eyes on Cain?= She asked lowly; to speak normally was an unwanted risk.

_=I think that's him by the van, Scorpio.=_ Leo answered. Virgo confirmed it.

Zelda hummed and looked down the scope to find her target. The fact he did not bare a mask to hide his face was a big help. _Ironic,_ she thought, lips curling upwards into a sardonic smirk, _that your desire to be noticed and listened to as a superior member is what's going to get you killed._

She lined it up, finger coming to rest on the trigger when suddenly Cain's radio seemed to fizzle to life, and he shifted just out of her scope. Zelda gritted her teeth but waited patiently.

_=Virgo, you getting what's being said?=_ Leo asked.

It was silent, the only sound was tapping from Virgo's end, then: _=I believe it to be Silas, voice patterns seems to suggest but no idea on what's actually being said—audio's to fuzzy.=_

Zelda grunted but never faulted from her position.

Eventually Cain stepped back out and the scope allowed her to see his smug smile. She frowned, _what's he smiling about?_

The ginger shook her head. =Taking the shot.=

She lined up again, took in a deep breath and—

The bullet hit her target, piercing the skull and killing on impact. Immediately she ducked away from the window as the underlings all burst into a frenzy. She heard the shouts and orders being given but paid no attention to them as she dismantled the sniper and packed up.

_=Go, go, go!=_ Virgo ordered as soon as she'd shoved the case away and she was on her feet, sliding the bag back onto her back. Leo was already waiting for her, crouched low. She joined them, sharing a look as the underlings began to file out of the building in search of the shooter.

Zelda humphed softly in annoyance, they couldn't stay on the roof nor could they risk climbing down.

"Bike's a warehouse over." Adan murmured as both of their eyes scanned for possible exits. It wasn't one of their finer moments—these types of locations were hard ones to escape in a hurry.

Zelda glanced back over the roof, scanning. Her eyes were drawn to the raised roof, perhaps…

"Think we'd make that jump?" She asked, pointing at the thing that'd caught her attention. Adan flashed her a confused look but followed her gaze, his eyes filled with understanding.

"Maybe, we'd gotta land it right otherwise risk a leg injury." He offered.

"It's the only chance we've got to get off the building. They'll be up here soon."

Their eyes meet, a silence conversation—a silent understanding and they shared a nod. They were on their feet in the next moment, crouching low as they hurried towards the roof entrance. The raised piece of architecture was just long enough for a run and jump.

"You first." Adan waved.

Zelda didn't waste a moment in answering, just climbed onto the secondary roof and took a deep breath, readying herself. She tensed her muscles, relaxed them and positioned herself, not hesitating a second in taking off in a run. She was over the edge in a mere second, the last second jettisoning herself into the air.

_Let me make it, let me make it, let me make it, let me make it,_ she mentally chanted as her seconds in the air passed by agonisingly slow before she began her decent.

She landed, knees bending to help cushion her landing as she fell into a roll. It drew a painful grunt from her—it was metal roofing after all.

She quickly scrambled to her feet, ignoring the vertigo that hit her as she did, and moved out of the way for Adan. Zelda turned in time to see him go soaring through the air.

Her breath lodged itself in her throat, that smallest part of her feared he'd under jumped.

But that wasn't what should have been her fear because he landed, however it wasn't correctly. Adan hissed, biting back a shout as his left shoe slipped upon his landing, it threw his entire manoeuvre off.

"Adan!" His name escaped in a strangled hushed tone.

Zelda quickly rushed to his side, hands landing on his shoulders. The blond choked on the pain, his own hand coming to clench Zelda's vest.

"We've gotta go!" Zelda's eyes widened as the door on the roof they'd just came from was slammed open.

Adan groaned but they moved—it was blatantly obvious he was seriously hurt. It might not have been a break, but it was a serve sprain.

It was going to be difficult.

* * *

It _was_ difficult.

Since Adan had injured his ankle, he was unable to drive the bike and so Zelda had taken over the role of driver. They didn't even have time to pull on their helmets as they jumped onto the bike and started it up.

Zelda shot out of the alley, the turn onto the road almost sending them crashing but if there was any vehicle Zelda's was a professional at it was the motorbike. There was shooting from behind, shouts and yells as the MECH soldiers chased after them with their own cars.

=Virgo, plans gone to shit!= Adan shouted over the wailing wind, there was no response. =Virgo?=

Nothing.

"Shit!" Adan hissed, burying his face into Zelda's shoulder. "Virgo's not answering! Somethings seriously wrong, there shouldn't be this many soldiers!"

Zelda grunted in response, her focus more on the road and avoiding the MECH trailing them. She turned another corner only for a black van to shoot out from nowhere. They screamed instinctively as Zelda pulled at the break, but it was too late, she was forced to swerve and it sent them skidding along the tarmac.

Zelda thinks that maybe she blacked out—or maybe hit her head—_or just something_ because when she opened her eyes, her entire body ached down to the bone and she was trapped under the bike as Adan sprawled out several feet from her.

He was trying to push himself but was struggling.

Zelda tried moving but… but she couldn't, she exhaled, biting back the panic—_the fear_—she'd been paralysed but she could feel her legs clearly—the pain helped pull that realisation to the front.

She coughed and felt something wet, something thicker than her saliva and tasted like copper. Blood.

Internal bleeding was more than possible—she didn't need to be Aria to know that.

Finally, she gained some strength, struggling and painful, but she lifted the bike enough to get out from under it.

There was squealing of tires and distantly Zelda was aware of Adan shouting suddenly but she couldn't _place_ anything. She blinked as the light from the lamppost was concealed, it took her a moment to realise it was a masked person.

She wanted to fight, to yell, to scream but she couldn't.

She didn't have the strength.

Her arms were grabbed, and she was dragged along the tarmac, it was painful but she couldn't fight it.

More yelling, snickering and everything went black.

* * *

She jolted into awareness, it was painful, and her head hurt and—well, everything hurt, even breathing. Zelda rolled her head side to side slowly as she tried to use her mushy and pulsing brain to recall what had happened.

She swallowed thickly when it came flickering back. She bit back a sob.

The crash.

Adan.

MECH.

Rattling snagged her attention and she twisted her head to see where it came from, out of the darkness she lay in, she could make out hints of blond hair. She forced herself onto her side and squinted as the sudden amount of light that hit her from the angle change made her eyes hurt.

"Adan?" She slurred, voice croaky and cracking from both lack of use and moisture.

"Hey." An equally as quiet voice but he sounded tired instead.

The was more chain shuffling as Adan crawled closer, it allowed Zelda to see the chain around his left ankle. She kicked her legs in response, seeing if she too bore one.

Right leg.

"W-What happened?"

"MECH." He whispered, his gaze turning towards the bars of their cage. Something Zelda was only just realising. She took a moment to breathe, examining the outside and she grimaced. It didn't look good, this wasn't some normal prisoner like cage—no, this looked like a lab.

It was dank and dark in colour, but Zelda knew what a lab looked like.

She had to hold back another sob, but her eyes stung this time and tears slipped out.

"How long have you been awake?"

"I want to say a day but I'm not sure, there's no clock in here." He answered dully. "The guy that was pottering, muttering to himself, left about two hours ago."

Zelda began trying to push herself up—

"Zelda." Adan's voice turned soft.

No—no, it wasn't possible.

She reached for her right arm but—there was nothing there but her shoulder. She choked—oh, god. Oh, god. Oh, god. Oh, god. _Oh, god._

Zelda used her remaining arm to drag herself to the and slump against it to—to—

The back wall was completely concrete of the prison, the front was completely barred, but the sides were a half of each, effectively allowing them to see into the two other cages either side of them. Both of which were empty.

A part of her was grateful but that realistic part of her knew, could see, there had been people in these cages prior to them. It made her sick—sicker than she already was—

For a long time, neither of them said anything, Zelda covering her mouth with her left hand in some attempt to muffle her sobs.

_This cannot be happening, _she trembled, _this has to be some stupid nightmare._

However, Zelda was many thing, a goofball, oddly clumsy, a nervous wreck sometimes but she wasn't an idiot.

This was real and the nightmare had yet to even start.

* * *

She screamed until her voice was hoarse and even passed that.

She remembers being tied to the metal examination table and having her blood taking, and strange liquids injected into her bloodstream that made her burn inside.

She remembers puking and refusing to eat until she was strapped down again and force-feed through a tube.

She remembers as Adan too was strapped down and forced to endure the same things as she was.

She remembers watching Adan cough up blood instead of puking like she did, and hearing the man behind it all, the scientist, muttering in Russian about how they'd need to 'watch him' as he was thrown back into the cage.

All the while Silas stood back and watched, smiling.

* * *

Whatever they were doing, Zelda could feel a difference in her body—it was subtle sure, but it was there all the same.

One time when she'd been thrown back into their cage, she hit the ground but found herself on her feet in seconds and launching herself at the underlings with impossible strength.

Whatever was happening to her made the scientist _excited_.

But it scared her.

What were they doing to them?

Adan's coughing was what woke up her. He'd been doing that more and more the last few… days? Zelda thought it had to be days, they'd found the scientist worked in shifts. He roused later in the day, worked until late before retiring, just to repeat.

Or at least that's what they guest from Silas's visits.

They weren't always pulled out of the cages and shoved onto the metal exanimation tables the entire time—they were only dragged out when he'd have something to stick in them.

It was a blessing.

Zelda completely turned her head to face Adan as his coughing escalated. She pushed herself up and crawled towards him, curling up next to him and Adan, in turn, slumped against her.

She reached her remaining hand up and brushed it through his hair, not caring about the greasy feeling.

"I love you." He whispered.

Zelda took a shaky breath, lips trembling. "I love you too."

* * *

"They have yet to die." Silas speaking Russian woke her from what could hardly be called sleep—merely a state of unconscious, perhaps.

"True but the boy is weak, I doubt he'll survive much longer. I've noticed it seems to be something about her blood that has accepted the serums, I believe I'm close to making a breakthrough as to what the anomaly might be."

"An anomaly, you say?" Silas questioned.

Zelda frowned but continued to feign sleep, unsure if they would stop talking if they knew she was awake.

"Yes!" The scientist, Cooper is what most called him, breathed with excitement. "I noticed it early on but did not consider or deem it worthy enough to look into until I was doing some other blood work recently. It is truly… _magnificent_! I've never seen another with such odd DNA strands before! A mutated genome I've never heard of before in all my years—and it looks to have been genetic! I wonder what caused such a mutation to occur?"

"Well, you can ponder on that in your own time, just figure out if we can replicate it in others, got it?" Silas ordered.

"Of course sir." You could hear the grin in Cooper's voice.

Adan coughed and gagged. Zelda jolted and gaze turning to him as the gagging worsened and blood split from his mouth. His face twisted into agony.

"We don't need a failure. Best put him out of his misery." Silas waved off.

Zelda snapped, and snarled and growled. "_DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE!"_

Silas just smirked and the cage door was opened. "Oh? And what are you going to do about it."

Zelda was on her feet in an instant in a blur of motion and launched herself at Silas. Her blood sang for _his_. With an animalistic snarl, she reached the end of her chain—the wall hold jerked. Zelda clawed and scratched at air, merely feet away from the man.

Then Silas raised his gun and—_BANG_

Zelda screeched in agony, an almost inhuman sound as she collapsed to the ground, crawling to Adan. Who gurgled, eyes wide, then slumped down dead.

Zelda just continued to scream and shout and cry in agony. Her fist clenching Adan's bloodied shirt as she begged for him not to leave her.

But it was already too late.

* * *

The shouts and crying of a young voice roused her immediately, her shoulders jolting with the startle, but she didn't move from the ball she'd curled up into against the right corner.

She left out a breathless intake… it was impossible, right?

Surely they wouldn't!

Suddenly Zelda chuckled croakily and humourlessly under her breath, _wouldn't, haha, that's funny._

She raised her eyes but didn't move from the ball as an underling moved into her view carrying a boy who couldn't have been any older than seven or eight. The kid was screaming and crying out for his parents, but his bloody clothes said enough to Zelda.

They were likely dead, a sardonic smile creep onto her dry, dirty and pale face. _MECH have a habit for murdering parents,_ she thought musingly with a quiet snicker.

The second underling stopped outside her cage and pulled open the door to allow the first to chuck the kid in with her.

The boy hit the ground jarringly and he cried out in pain this time.

Zelda blinked apathetically as the cage door was slammed closed once more and the underlings walked away.

The boy continued to sob—it began to grate on her nerves, but she gritted her teeth to stop her desire to snarl at him that crying was useless.

It lasted a long time—exactly she wasn't sure, perhaps near half an hour (too long for her likely) but eventually, he seemed to catch into the fact he wasn't alone. Green, bloodshot, puffy eyes lifted and landed on Zelda's hidden form in the corner.

He flinched, eyes widening in fear but all she did was stare at him blankly.

Finally, she let out a huff and buried her face into her knees, intending to go back to sleep.

* * *

He was an insistent bastard; she'd give him that. The boy had started off with huddling as far away from her as possible, just shaking and keeping to himself since he had no more tears to cry.

But after a while, a day or two—Zelda wasn't sure, didn't care anymore—he'd started staring at her.

She ignored it at first, half the time she wasn't even in the cage anyway. She'd be taken away for physical training to test her new abilities and prepping for something to do with her lack of arm.

She had no idea what was happening to the boy, but he'd flinched and curled in on himself whenever she'd return being dragged by the underlings.

She'd go back to her corner and sleep.

But eventually, she began to get annoyed. She looked up sharply, baring her teeth with a sneer as she barked in Russia: "What the fuck is your problem, brat?"

He flinched, eyes widening in fear—she both loved the look and loathed it simultaneously. He whimpered and Zelda scoffed, _pathetic_.

"Your crying and whining ain't gonna do anything, brat." She huffed.

"I just want my mum and dad." He whispered.

"They're probably dead, kid." She deadpanned. "Get over it."

"You're really mean, but…" He trailed off. "But not mean like _them_."

Zelda blinked, turning to gaze at him blankly. She didn't say anything.

* * *

The boy cuddled against her side, it left her breathing shaky, her fingers trembling because she didn't know what to do. She'd not had this…this kind of contact since… since… since _his_ death.

Zelda's eyes burned. She bit back a sob and—she'd not cried in almost two months, she'd long since run out of tears. She didn't think she could ever cry again after all she'd see and felt.

But here she was, _crying_.

Shaking arm slowly wrapped around the boy, pulling him close.

* * *

"Please, no, no!" She screamed, fighting against the dozen men holding her down.

He screamed in fear and terror.

"_Stop, stop, __**stop!**__"_

More blood stained the ground.

Zelda sobbed, and screamed, and then just stopped, laying there limply.

She… she couldn't.

She couldn't do it anymore.

It was then that she truly stopped fighting.

* * *

**:)**


End file.
